KOZHIKODE: The dreams of Scheduled Tribe youth PR Mani, an actor from the Chethalayam Tathoor Paniya colony near Sultan Bathery, Wayanad, has received a fillip in Bollywood. Mani, who played a prominent character in the Bollywood web series The Great Indian Murder, which was released two months ago, has now returned home after the success celebrations of the series held in Mumbai on March 16 and hustle and bustle of the shootings. The youth, who has acted in Malayalam movies like Udalaazham and Photographer, has also been offered a role in the second season of the web series and is in talks with the producers of another Bollywood film.
Mani was first seen in Mohanlal-starrer Photographer in 2006 when he was studying in Class 6 and won state film award for his performance. “After that I didn’t get any significant offer from the industry. The industry almost forgot me. In some movie-album productions, the makers didn’t pay me the promised remuneration also,” said the 25-year-old Mani. He discontinued his studies after Class 9 to find a livelihood and ended up in a ginger plantation in Shivamogga in Karnataka. Later, he got married to Pavizham from his village and has four daughters. His family faced some tragedies such as his sister’s death. Due to financial crisis in the family, Mani had to contribute to the family income along with his elder brother and father. So his cinema dreams got a long pause.
After 12 years, finally his dream came true through the film Udalaazham directed by Unnikrishnan Avala. He acted the role of Gulikan, a tribal transgender in the movie, which paved the way to act in The Great Indian Murder. Impressed by Mani’s performance in Udalaazham, the production team of the web series approached him. Mani played the role of Andaman ST man, Eketi, in the series, which was directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. “The shooting was held in several places like Andaman, Delhi, Chennai, Raipur, Kolkata and Mumbai. There were several challenges like lack of knowledge in Hindi and difficulty in mingling with such experienced professional film production crew. My co-stars like Shashank Arora were really supportive. However, I’m happy with the positive response received from the audience, even in Bollywood. They have offered me role in their second season too, which is expected to start rolling in September. There is also one offer from a Bollywood film,” said Mani.