From playing Basil's younger brother in 'Falimy' to 'weird' friend in 'Padakkalam': What makes Sandeep Pradeep tick

Actor Sandeep Pradeep who shot to fame after his impressive performance as the younger brother of Basil's character in 'Falimy' is on a roll. The young lad has got to essay two different characters in back-to-back films recently. In 'Alappuzha Gymkhana' directed by Khalid Rahman, he played the over-confident boxer, while in 'Padakkalam' starring Sharafudheen and Suraj Venjaramoodu, he managed to turn heads playing the shy lover boy, who gets in trouble.

The actor is happy with all the responses coming his way, though he admits he had some apprehensions about how his character in 'Padakkalam' would be received, given the risky plot and treatment. 

"I had to introduce a bit of machismo to my character in the second half of the film. People have never seen me mouth mass dialogues in the past, and I was worried if I could pull off that kind of character. Luckily, Jithin was well-received by the audience," said the actor, who played Jithin in the movie.

Sandeep said he first heard the story from debutant director Manu Swaraj who came to narrate the script to him during the shoot of 'Alappuzha Gymkhana'. He was immediately drawn by Manu's narration. "Manu has this really fun way of telling stories. It was also interesting that Manu wanted to approach this genre differently. In addition, I had a lot of screen space in this movie," said Sandeep.

'Padakkalam' is a fun-filled fantasy revolving around four kids and two professors. One of them wants to keep people under his control using black magic, while Jithin and his three friends played by Arun Ajikumar, Saaf Boi, and Ishaan Shoukath try to tackle him.

Sandeep is quick to say that he is hardly anything like his character in 'Padakkalam'. "In fact, all the characters in the movie are weird. I could not relate to the front-bencher boys, comic-book nerds we were playing in the movie. But, it was fun to play them. Personally, I am nothing like Jithin in the film. But the chemistry we shared off-screen helped us a lot while playing these unfamiliar characters," he said.

He added that senior actors like Suraj and Sharafudheen were great fun on the sets. "Sometimes, it is difficult to improvise on our dialogues when senior actors are involved, but we never had that problem with Surajettan and Sharafudheen. Also, they offered some great suggestions during the shoot," he said. 

Sandeep added that the filming experience was quite different from other movies he worked on due to the body-swapping concept. "It was necessary to observe each other's mannerisms and fine-tune our performances accordingly. Each character had a different metre and we had to ensure there would be that continuity. I remember how Sharafudheen would tell me not to smile too much as it would spoil the metre of the character I was embodying in the latter half of the film. Surajettan would also ask how I preferred to react in a certain situation. The shooting process was a new experience, as each actor was totally invested in how the other person was performing," he said.

Sandeep said he loves doing comedy roles, especially those that are relatable and would grab the opportunity if such characters came his way. However, he is wary of repeating the characters he played in the past. "I received several offers to play a younger brother after filmmakers saw my performance in Falimy. If I had chosen those roles, I may never have had the opportunity to work in films like 'Alappuzha Gymkhana or 'Padakkalam.' So, it is important to choose different scripts, though a newcomer does have his limitations," said Sandeep, who has signed up for his next film helmed by the 'Kishkinda Kandham' team.

Sandeep has always harboured dreams of becoming an actor and has been part of several short films, before he ventured into the big screen. He made his debut with the Vinayan directorial 'Pathonpatham Noottandu'. 'Falimy' director Nitish Sahadev cast him in the movie after watching his performance in a short film. "I have always been passionate about cinema, and I am glad I got the opportunity to be part of some good films," said the actor.