For Vishnu Manchu films are more like a legacy. Coming from a prominent film family, the lights-camera-action life was something he couldn’t resist for long. “Besotted from the very beginning” as he puts it. The dubbed version of his latest flick ‘Dhenikaina Ready’ will soon hit Kerala screens and the actor is all upbeat about his Mollywood landing. “‘Too excited’, that’s how I would sum up my feelings about entering Malayalam cinema,” he says.
Vishnu, son of actor-politician Mohan Babu, broke into Tollywood a decade back. “My father wanted me to become an IPS officer, but it seems destiny had other plans,” says the actor who holds an engineering degree. It was no impromptu entry as he started his film career only after completing an acting course from the New York Film Academy. “I also did a course in screenplay from the University of California where I got a chance to interact with the topnotch action choreographers from Hollywood. All this helped me a lot when I began my career.”
Unlike most of his contemporaries Vishnu’s filmography includes only a handful of films. He is just eight films old in the industry, but the actor says it was a measured move. “Rather than hurrying up and making mediocre movies I prefer to wait for quality ones. I don’t think there is any point in increasing the numbers. I want to make only one movie a year, but for a large market. In Kerala Telugu movies don’t stand a chance because of the language barrier. I want to expand the market and tap the whole south,” he says.
Vishnu says it’s entertainment quotient what he looks for in a script and his latest release contains a generous dose of it. “‘Dhenikaina Ready’ will be an out-and-out family entertainer. I play a carefree youth whose only concern in life is to make sure that his mom is happy. The film involves a slew of funny situations and it will be a total laugh riot,” says the actor who adds that action-comedy is his forte. “I love doing action, but I always end up adding humour to it.”
Vishnu says being an avid watcher of all south films, Malayalam cinema is no alien terrain for him. “‘Run Baby Run’ and ‘Mr Marumakan’ are the two films I watched recently. I think Dileep is unbeatable when it comes to comedy. Mohanlal is simply awesome. My father played his part when many of Mohanlal’s films were remade into Telugu.” His Malayali connection doesn’t end there. “It was Shaji Kailas who directed ‘Vishnu’, my debut film. Later I did a movie with Mamta Mohandas who is also from Mollywood,” he says.