Akhilesh Varma, the young politician in ABCD, is suave and charming whereas Tharun in ‘Koothara’ is the amiable boy-next-door; but none of them remind you of the brawny-and-bearded Eby Ebineser in ‘7th Day’. Though the three characters were played by the same actor it’s almost impossible to track down the resemblance, thanks to his ever-changing onscreen getups. But Tovino Thomas, most commonly known as Tovi, definitely made the audience sit and take note. “My roles in the above three films were much appreciated, but very few people could identify the fact that they were played by the same actor,” says Tovino.
The actor adds that even when he is at a theatre where his film is being screened, people hardly recognise him. “Recently I got mobbed by a group of young cine buffs at a theatre in Kochi where my latest film ‘Koothara’ is playing. They were praising my performance as Aby in ‘7th Day’, but didn’t say a word about ‘Koothara’. It was then I realised that my latest look was totally opposite from my character in ‘Koothara’. So they didn’t know they were talking to the same actor,” he laughs. Tovino says that the situation was no different when ‘ABCD’ and ‘7th Day’ were released. “The reason is simple, my characters had entirely different looks in all the three films,” he adds.
Though he has been part of a handful of good and commercially successful films, Tovino seems all excited about his latest outing.
“’Koothara’ is a dream come true for me as I always wanted to share the screen with Lalettan and Mammookka. In ‘Koothra’ I could act with Lalettan and now I am waiting for a Mammookka film,” says Tovino.
Tovino, who was active in modelling, made his foray into films through Martin Prakat’s ‘ABCD’. An engineering graduate, he was selected for the role after a short career as an assistant director in Roopesh Pithambaran’s ‘Theevram’. The actor says he had to do a lot of homework to portray a 30-year-old politician for his debut. “Basically I had to change my body language since the character was more mature than me. I was just out of my academic life when that role was offered to me,” he says. Tovino, who is getting positive response for the recently released ‘Koothara’, is all set to play the hero in Roopesh Peethambaran’s next titled ‘You too Brutus’. In the film he will play the lead along with Sreenivasan, Aju Varghese, Anu Mohan and Ahmad Siddique.
The movie will start rolling soon. Another film in the actor’s kitty is Albey’s ‘Starring Pournami’, the movie which has completed two schedules in Jammu Kashmir. “It’s for that film I am sporting a beard now,” he smiles.
