SMOKING CESSATION

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE LUCIA, LIFEU ISHTENE AND U TURN DIRECTOR PAWAN KUMAR WHO RECENTLY RELEASED DHOOMAM, HIS LATEST SUSPENSE THRILLER WITH A COMPELLING MESSAGE STARRING FAHADD FAASIL AND APARNA BALAMURALI

- NAMITA GUPTA

Director Pawan Kumar has been praised by critics for his June release Dhoomam, produced by Hombale Films. With the shy and reticent Fahadh Faasil delivering a stellar performance as always and a talented cast and crew, the film has a very strong message on the harmful effects of smoking. We catch up with the young director, Pawan Kumar, who is known for his Kannada films and has stepped into the Malayalam film industry for the first time on his adept direction, and his journey in the industry so far. Although the film features one of the top Malayalam actors Fahadh Faasil alongside Aparna Balamurali, Koushik Mahata and Joy Mathew as lead characters, it did not manage to become a blockbuster hit at the box office. It is a must watch, as it comes with a social message of how smoking is injurious to health weaved around all the suspense and drama.

What inspired you to become a director?

Very early on, right from my college days, I had the habit of ideating. I always used to put up street plays and ads and would come up with the idea of what should be in the script. Invariably, I got dragged into converting the script into a form. So it started as that, wherein I was doing theatre as an actor, writer and a director. When I moved into movies, I was not really planning to be a director. I was planning to only act and write. But when you write your own scripts, you tend to feel that there's nobody else who could translate the ideas that you have from script to screen. Hence, the directorial bug takes over. The experience of having done short films and plays earlier in life helped me step in to feature films as a director.

Please share some of your experiences working on Dhoomam?