Not often do you see an upcoming actor relish in the fact that he plays the antagonist in a film being shot at present. Shabeer Kallarakkal, who was last seen in Nerungi Va Muthamidathe (2014), directed by Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, is excited about his new role as the villain in an upcoming psychological thriller 54321, directed by Ragavendra Prasad.
Why do you love negative roles? “Most of the movies centre around the hero but 54321 is a movie about the antagonist and I’m proud to be playing that role. Plus, a villain has to project himself to be bigger than the hero and that asks for a lot from an actor,” smiles Shabeer who was assistant director to Lakshmy for the film Ammani (2016). Talking about this chance to work in 54321, he says, “I was excited because it was a huge role. I was scared as I have no cinema background but I had an amazing character to portray!” There in lay his motivation.
“In a particular jail scene, I was to be tied and beaten up with a stick. They did place a cushion under my dress but it started to slide away and I ended up taking quite a few blows. Blue lines formed on my body later that day, but the pain was real. However, it was a satisfying moment for me,” he explains. Shabeer has to shed 10 kilos for one scene in the latter half of the film. It wasn’t the first time he took to physical tuning to fit in a character. “For an audition, I shed about 15 kilos in a month to sport a particular look and for a week, I sat on the Besant Nagar beach from 10 am to 2 pm to get tanned. But unfortunately, I didn’t get that role,” he recalls.
How does he motivate himself? If you presume he always wanted to be an actor or watched a lot of films, you are wrong. Shabeer wanted to be a cricketer. “Until my college days, the plan was to be a cricketer. I’ve been part of the league cricket in the UK as an overseas cricketer for a local team too. The acting bug bit me when I met Aari at a dance class. He put me on to Jayakumar from Koothupatarai. I spent 4 years with him as actor, assistant director and attended many acting workshops,” he recalls. The cast of 54321 includes Rohini, Jayakumar of pizza (2012) fame and Ravi Ragavendra and the film is slated for release this month.
