With a handful of movies in his kitty, actor Aneesh G Menon is looking forward to a rosy future in Mollywood. Past the Mohanlal-starrer Drishyam, in which he donned the role of the protagonist’s brother-in-law, he is busy doing notable roles in some of the most promising projects.
Ask him why he chooses superstar movies alone and he says, “Superstar movies have a minimum guarantee that they will reach the theatres. That will help me get noticed, which is important for me at this stage of my growth as an actor.”
He is happy that Drishyam has finally given him the much-needed break. “Drishyam was a dream-come-true for me as acting with Mohanlal was one of my biggest dreams. He is very flexible and I never felt tensed when I was acting with him.”
Before entering the film industry, Aneesh was working with the children’s theatre. He was also an actor with the KPAC and has performed on around 1,000 stages.
Besides, he has performed with magician Gopinath Muthukad and was also a mimicry artiste. “But my passion and ambition was always cinema. My biggest dream was to act in a movie. Now that I have accomplished that, I am dreaming of scaling greater heights in the industry.”
But the path to his dream was not an easy one. “I come from a village near Valanchery, Malappuram, where people have no connection with cinema, other than watching films. None of my family members are connected to cinema either. With nobody to support, I had to struggle a lot in the beginning.”
Aneesh’s entry into the tinsel town was through the reality show, ‘Mammootty the Best Actor Award,’ on Asianet, in which he bagged the first runner-up in Season One.
“It was quite accidental. It was my friend Ashra Mohammed who had sent my entry to the show without my knowledge,” he reminisces.
His first movie was Apoorvaragam directed by Sibi Malayil and later he acted in the Mammootty starrer Best Actor, by Martin Prakkat. His role as Anavari in the movie Balyakalasakhi, directed by Pramod Payyanur, was a notable one.
He has also worked as assistant director for the film. Speaking about his interests behind the camera, Aneesh says, “I am interested in matters behind the camera too. Whenever I get a chance, I try to learn more about camera and direction.”
Aneesh has also starred in the recently released Manglish. He donnes the role of Simon, a pickpocket in the movie.
His roles in a few upcoming movies are promising, including Peruchazhi with Mohanlal, Villaliveeran with Dileep, Tamar Padar with Prithviraj and Angels with Indrajith.
Though his eyes are firmly fixed on the heights in his acting career that he is aiming to scale, he is not ready to forget the past.
“I had to struggle a lot in the initial days. I was removed from roles in a few movies for which I had been cast. But when I shared these experiences with actors Mammootty and Siddique, they said even they had gone through such phases in their careers. Their words have given me much inspiration.”
“At that time, my only aim was to enter tinsel town somehow. But now that I have acted in a few movies, I am looking forward to doing meatier roles,” says Aneesh.