A Man Of Many Hats - Prithviraj Sukumaran

Call him a veteran or call him one who has always gotten better with time, stardom is synonymous with his name. Giving up the anonymity he values for the movie business that he loves, Prithviraj is easily one of the biggest forces to reckon with

-  Jigar Shah

Prithviraj Sukumaran, 38, is easily one of the greats of Malayalam cinema. In 18 years, he has done more than 100 films in various languages, including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. Film critic Vijay George once said in an interview, “Prithviraj is a hero and a future superstar for the audience since his debut.”

But he had to work very hard to attain that stardom. His career began at the age of 19, when director Ranjith auditioned him, and offered him the lead for his film Nandanam. However, his debut film was Nakshathrakkannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari (2002). At 19, the actor was pursuing an undergrad program at the University of Tasmania, in Australia. He had no plans to stick around post the release of his first few films. But during Vellithira in 2003 (his fourth film), he realised that all his life, he wanted to be an actor. He decided to stay back, and continue working in films. Today, he dons many hats in the movie business. He is an actor, a producer, a director, a singer, and a distributor.

Everything in life is a trade-off. To achieve something, you have to sacrifice something. On his long journey to superstardom, one thing that Prithviraj had to give up was anonymity, which is something he values a lot. Talking about it in an interview, he reportedly said, “It is a trade-off that you need to learn to live with, and I am still learning to do that, but I have no complaints. The movie business has given me a lot.”