Many old movie characters and their dialogues stay alive in the minds of netizens because of the popular memes based on them. 'Dashamoolam Damu,' one of Malayalam actor Suraj Venjarammoodu's most popular comic characters, is a hot meme among Keralites widely using several social media platforms. Netizens are exploring the many expressions of Damu from the 2009 movie 'Chattambinadu and connecting them with instances from Malayali's social, political and personal lives. After all, social media as the name itself implies has immense bearings on our society and popular film characters easily resonate with the public.
Commenting on this, filmmaker Shafi, who directed the movie 'Chattambinadu', said that he feels privileged to watch the trolls using Dashamoolam Damu's face flooding his WhatsApp and Facebook accounts. “I never thought that Dashamoolam Damu would make an impact on the society. I lose my control and laugh my heart out viewing some troll memes using Suraj's face from 'Chattambinadu'. Frankly, I didn't enjoy that character and his dialogues this much even when we actually shot them on the sets,” he said.
The director said that he called Suraj Venjarammoodu to inform the new troll trend featuring his face. “Suraj was already aware of it. He suggested to reintroduce the character in my upcoming movie. I told him I am ready to make a movie with Dashamoolam Damu as the central character,” Shafi told Onmanorama, sarcastically.
Shafi thanked the 'trollers' for keeping his movies and characters active in the society. “I did 'Kalyanaraman' 16 years ago. Now I feel like it is still running in the theatres because I see Ponjikkara, Pyari and others everyday on my timeline. This is one fortune my movies have got. Be it 'Pulivalkalyanam', 'Chattambinadu', 'Mayavi' or 'Kalyanaraman', most number of troll memes are from my movies. What else is a recognition in the age of social media?” A delighted Shafi exclaimed.