Neelavelicham director Ashiq Abu: Tovino Thomas is the kind of actor who can be moulded to fit a plethora of roles

Tovino Thomas and Ashiq Abu are joining hands yet again for what promises to be one of their best works yet. The duo’s upcoming release comes in the form of Neelavelicham, an adaptation of Vaikkom Muhammed Basheer’s short story of the same name. The upcoming film marks Tovino and Ashiq’s fourth collaboration, after Mayaanadhi (2017), Virus(2019), and Naaradan (2022). The duo recently opened up about the beginnings of their string of collaborations.

In conversation with Film Companion South, Ashiq spoke of how he began noticing Tovino even when he started out in small roles, such as ABCD. “ We all couldn't help but notice him. He did do a variety of interesting roles, spoke Malayalam well, and he looked like the kind of actor who could be moulded well to fit a number of different roles”, Ashiq said.

The director then went on to say “So when we were discussing Mayanadhi, we started off with the thought that he could be well suited for romantic roles. Then our association became more and more interesting”.

Tovino revealed that the duo had first met each other during an event for Abu’s production Maheshinte Prathikaaram. That was when Ashiq said that he had noticed Tovino’s work.

Tovino revealed that years ago, before he started acting and before he quit his job, he had watched Ashiq’s film Salt N Pepper in theatres. He talked about the impact the film had on film, and how much some of the shots resonated with him.

The actor then recalled a hilarious anecdote from his days as a struggling actor, when he struggled to even have enough money for food. Tovino used to get travel allowance, which he used to buy food with for himself and an assistant director he was working with. It was at that time that Ashiq got married. One day when Tovino was starving and had no money for food, his assistant director friend saw Ashiq and his new bride pass by, and asked if they should borrow money from the new couple, saying the latter would not mind since they already gave so much to charity.

Neelavelicham will hit theatres on April 21, 2023.