Shane Nigam: I am done with serious roles; I want to try humour now

After his role as a karate expert in record breaking, massy action film RDX, Shane Nigam is going more light-hearted with his next, a family entertainer titled Little Hearts. He is teaming up again with his RDX co-star, Mahima Nambiar, in the film directed by Anto Jose Pereira & Aby Treesa Paul, with screenplay by Rajesh Pinnadan.

Shane spoke candidly to Kochi Times about how he is using his experience to ensure that he makes savvy decisions with picking projects, saying a big no to OTT and the “unfair ban” imposed on him by film associations. Excerpts…

Choosing light, energetic projects
Shane’s previous film is credited with being one of the first Malayalam films to pull audiences back into theatres after a too-long gap, and he is thrilled he “was part of the change that the film heralded”. The young actor is keen to choose his next projects intelligently and says with admirable maturity, “I hadn’t expected RDX to have that impact. For one, it isn’t the sort of realistic film that we are used to seeing in Malayalam; in fact, it was something I was concerned about. Since 2015, audiences were more drawn to realistic films. But it seems like the stars were aligned with RDX; it had an energy and all the commercial elements that were able to draw people to theatres.”

His upcoming film is a romance set against the backdrop of the cardamom plantations of Kattapana, and Shane plays a farmer; “which is almost the complete opposite of my last character”. The film has Shine Tom, Baburaj in important roles. “Actually, there are three important relationships shown in the film,” he says.

“I am making a conscious decision to do light-hearted movies, where my character can try humour, after the serious roles in Corona Papers and Vela. From my experience, I feel we need films that are energetic to be able to attract audiences to theatres. So, I am staying clear of slow-paced films, which struggle to bring in audiences,” says the actor, who has a couple of films and independent music projects coming up.

‘I have said no to several OTT offers from other industries’I don’t think one can enjoy a film on OTT, since we give it only limited attention. We pause the film if we get a call or if we need to do something. On the other hand, in the theatre, we give the film our total attention and enjoy it better, I believe.

I am not interested in OTT; I don’t feel it does anything good for cinema. Films are created with great detailing by each cast and crew member, so it deserves that level of attention from the viewer. I can’t accept any compromise on that. I have turned down OTT offers from several Indian industries, including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

‘Why do film associations only rake up issues against me?’Shane got into trouble with the producers’ association and directors’ union earlier in the year, when they imposed a brief ban on him, along with actor Sreenath Bhasi, following complaints from the set. Shane had also been in trouble with the association in late 2019, over similar complaints of tardiness.

The actor says that the best way to counter this is to keep working. “There are problems on every film set, but no one airs it out. On the other hand, trade bodies readily speak against me. Don’t they ever get complaints against anyone else? The RDX producer had said in an interview that the issues that were raked up were negligible. Then why were the issues discussed in public?” he asks.

He points out that the ban was imposed on April 15, saying he was not going for the RDX shoot, but the shoot had already wrapped up by April 13. “I do feel bad that people are seeing only one side of the picture; I can only wish that people can see my side, too. But I have stopped responding to allegations, because I don’t want to start conflicts with more people. I feel that because I have been in the right, these issues haven’t affected my career too much. I want to just continue with my work and leave it up to the audience to judge me as an actor,” he concludes.