CHENNAI: After Bollywood its southern film industry's turn to look towards Hollywood for stories, the latest being Anoop Menon starrer Cocktail , which is loosely inspired by Pierce Brosnan-starrer Butterfly on a Wheel .
While Brosnan's film was a box office disappointment, the Malayalam movie had done well commercially.
"That is the greatest irony," Anoop, who also wrote the script told PTI .
With the exception of three main characters around which the English version revolves, none of the other characters are there in the original. A lot of additional characters have been fitted in and the script worked to suit the Malayali taste, he said.
The film deals with extra-marital affairs and moral ambiguities of the lead characters.
"We don't like hard truths and do not like reality being played out on the big screen. There is so much of hypocrisy, but the success has proved that the Malayali audience is prepared to accept such themes," he said.
Doing the script was easy. It was done in four-five days but the challenge was in the filmmaking process... "to find a producer, the actors..," Anoop said.
The movie is directed by debutant Arun Kumar, who has edited 18 films of well-known director Priyadarshan.
This is his first big hit in which Anoop has played a major role as an actor, a far cry from when he made his bow in 2002 with the Vinayan-directed Kattuchembakam which flopped.
"I had nothing to lose. It made me stronger. I realised how hard it is to make it big in the industry. It was a learning experience," he said.
This is a bigger hit than ' Thirakkatha ', he said.
In Moksham , which had a lot of English dialogues, he got to act with the 1970s Bollywood bombshell Zeenat Aman. Zeenat never got to mouth any dialogues in Malayalam.
"She did not have any airs about her. We chatted about everything... the Hare Rama Hare Krishna days, Dev Anand, Sanjay Khan, her marriage with Mazhar Khan... She was the sweetest thing to have happened to the movie."
Cinema is a passion for Anoop who topped the Kerala University's LLB exams a few years ago.
"I always wanted to be in cinema. It is a passion. If I am not acting, then I am writing (script) or watching movies."
Anoop has also ventured into Bollywood writing the script and acting as well in the Sanjay Suri starrer- Anubhav .
"I wrote the script in English and it was translated to Hindi," he said. But the movie did not click.
Anoop described the script as one of his "finest thoughts" much better than Cocktail and Mohanlal-starrer Pakalnakshathrangal .
"Maybe we were a bit too native in our approach to a Bollywood film," he said.
Before stepping into the film industry, Anoop did a lot of shows on Malayalam TV channels and acted in some popular TV serials.
In Pakalnakshathrangal , he played Mohanlal's son. He also acted in Rock and Roll with Mohanlal.
"Mohanlal is down-to-earth...He has nothing to prove at this point of time after so many films...what amazes me is his commitment even after three decades in the industry."
His film to be released is Traffic in which he plays a cop. Shooting for Lavender , directed by Altas Ali, is going on. Portions of it are being shot in Bangkok.