Stepping out of the comfort zone made this film possible: Basil on 'Pravinkoodu Shappu'

Basil Joseph has been riding a wave of success with recent films like 'Pravinkoodu Shappu', a surreal satire that throws traditional storytelling out the window in favour of quirk and controlled chaos. Directed by Sreeraj Sreenivasan, the film may have caught audiences off guard, but for Basil, that was exactly the point.

Speaking to Onmanorama, Basil explained what drew him to the film, and why he felt it was important to support a script that was anything but conventional. Right from the pitch, he knew this wasn’t going to follow the familiar beats of a mainstream entertainer, and that was precisely what sparked his curiosity.

The first thing that stood out to him was the script’s structure. It wasn’t linear, safe, or rooted in familiar formats, instead, it leaned heavily into absurdist humour, surreal moments, and unexpected character arcs. Rather than being a deterrent, this unpredictability made Basil want to jump on board.

He recalled being intrigued by director Sreeraj’s short films, which also displayed a unique sensibility. That, combined with the unconventional tone of 'Pravinkoodu Shappu', gave him enough reason to believe in the director’s vision. “There was humour in the absurdity,” Basil said, adding that the entire team wanted to be part of that risk, to experiment and to try something that hadn’t really been done in recent mainstream Malayalam cinema.

At a time when spectacle-heavy films still dominate the box office, 'Pravinkoodu Shappu' felt like a counter-narrative. For Basil, the shift in Malayalam cinema towards story-driven films, where the plot becomes the star, is something worth nurturing. The film’s refusal to fit neatly into any genre box was, in a way, a return to that kind of filmmaking. “Earlier, we mostly saw muscular-hero films,” Basil observed. “Now, we’re seeing stories take precedence again. That becomes the identity of the film.”

Interestingly, Basil’s role in the film also gave him a chance to break away from the affable, boy-next-door image that many of his characters have carried. He admitted that the character wasn’t written with him in mind, and that challenge — of stepping into a slightly offbeat, out-of-comfort-zone role — was another reason why he embraced the project.

The experience, he said, was creatively liberating. But he’s also clear-eyed about the fact that films like 'Pravinkoodu Shappu' won’t immediately click with everyone. “Maybe today or tomorrow, the audience will recognise it as something different or maybe it’ll take time,” he said. “But for experimental films, there is always that risk.”

Still, that’s a risk he feels is worth taking, for the sake of variety, for pushing boundaries, and for creating space for newer voices like Sreeraj. “We knew this wouldn’t follow a typical format. But it’s only when we step outside our comfort zone that films like this get made,” he said.

With Pravinkoodu Shappu now heading to a digital release on SonyLIV, Basil remains hopeful that more viewers will discover, and perhaps embrace, its unapologetic strangeness. After all, in a landscape increasingly defined by formula, films like this are a reminder of what storytelling can be when rules are thrown out the window.