His smouldering looks and towering frame endeared him to Malayalis all over the world for over two decades. Babu Antony, after having made a mark in almost all Indian languages, including Hindi and English, is now all set for a second innings in Mollywood.
The actor, who last seen on screen in the super-hit film Christian Brothers, is now eyeing the Malayalam film industry in a big way with mega projects like Lal’s ‘Cobra’ and B Unnikrishnan’s ‘Grandmaster’ in his kitty.
“No, it’s not a comeback,” he says. “I don’t believe it’s a comeback for me in the Malayalam film industry. I was busy with many films in other languages. I am lucky enough to get an important role in the superhit Tamil film Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya and its remakes in four languages, including Hindi (Ek Deewana Tha),” he says.
The villain-turned-hero says that this year he will be busy with two mega projects, the Mammootty-starrer ‘Cobra’ and Mohanlal-starrer ‘Grandmaster.’
“It’s important that I have got crucial supporting actor roles in both the movies ‘Cobra’ and ‘Grandmaster’ as they will be big-hit movies this year. I am very much happy to have such characters as important as the heroes.”
In addition to that, Kollywood has accepted the body language, acting skills and martial arts of Malayalis’ own Babu Antony aka Bob Antony. He has many big Tamil projects in his hands this year. “The shoot is on for Amir Sulthan’s Adi Bhagavan. Fifty per cent of the shoot has been completed and am expecting a trip to London for rest of the shoot. Last year, Raghava Lawrence’s horror movie Kanchana was a big hit where Sharath Kumar donned the role of a transgender. Its Kannada version is also on my way. The latest Tamil movie, Gokul’s Rowthiram, was also a tremendous hit,” he says.
“The Tamil film industry scenario is completely different from Malayalam,” he says. There are many sensible film-makers in Kollywood and they always try to experiment with the newcomers. During these two decades, I have done all types of expressive and inexpressive characters. We hardly get a variety of offers, especially from Bollywood, by staying here, he says.
“The Malayalam film industry lacks active producers. They should be willing to invest in the film industry. What’s important is how much money we use on a single film not how we spend on it, he says and added that each film should be able to communicate with the audience. Films which could communicate to the people were big hits. ‘Salt N Pepper’ is one such film.”
He says these days films come with an eye on satellite rights and are solely dependent on subjects that appeal to the channels (ie subjects are selected according to the interests of TV viewers).
The studious actor is set to add another feather to his hat – the director’s hat, that is. Yes, Babu Antony is planning to direct `Piano,’ a musical love story. The film will be scripted by John Paul. Babu Antony’s Russian-American wife Katrina will lend her voice for a song in the film. The song will be a purely western one, says Babu.
‘Piano’ will follow the traditional way of film making. While in most of the films the script is done according to the actors, here the casting will be done after the script is completely over.
The film will be based on a beautiful love story, giving great importance to music. It will also have pure action based on martial arts.
“All the characters will be heroes in my film. It’s a beautiful love story. In fact, I’ve been carrying this in my mind for the past many years. It’s a passion for me to be a director for my first film. Because love is a universal language and everybody will accept it because they carry a love story in their hearts,” he said.
“The film is expected to be on the floor in August. I believe the film will communicate well with the audience,” Babu said.
“It’s important to take film as a business. Only, it should be well communicated to the people. It should not go in the lane of a personal cinema. There are so many talented youngsters who are interested in direction and acting. They should be given proper training. There are just a handful of film institutes in the country. They should expand their scope and teach more youngsters. Moreover, it’s not possible to keep so many people as assistants in films. So it’s high time to start more film institutions,’’ he said.