Shyam Mohan, the actor who played the unpredictable Hari in Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, uses the word ‘high’ to describe a feeling that has lasted a month since the film's release. Rohan Shanavas, or everybody’s favourite Glikson, uses a Malayalam phrase that can be likened to being in a ‘daze’ to describe his past month and Shameer Khan or Brinto, calls this experience ‘trance-like’.
These aren’t sentiments actors often express when speaking about a film’s success, particularly when they’ve played smaller roles in it. But like the ‘kudumbam’ or the family in its title, BKU’s blockbuster success belongs to everyone, right from Justin’s gossipy cousin Riya (Meenakshi) to Joel Davis (Sangeeth Prathap), aka ‘Spielberg From Karukutty ’, as he describes himself. If Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju became the beating heart of this film, these are the actors that gave this film its body.
Together, the five of them think out loud about all the reasons they fit so beautifully into the film’s world and wonder how their director, Girish AD, evokes epic cinematic moments out of the mundane, everyday occurrences.
Finding the Girish AD Magic
“I clearly remember watching Girish’s first film Thanneer Mathan Dinangal at a theatre in Kochi,” begins Shyam, speaking about the 2019 film. “My two friends and I had just started making comedy content for YouTube and I recall discussing the film for hours after the show was over.”
What he felt stood out about the film was how organically the jokes landed. “It got us to rework the writing of our own comedy sketches, and we decided to not forcefully create a situation for a joke. Our first viral sketch was created right after we made that decision.”
Shyam broke out into the mainstream after playing Mamitha Baiju’s boss in Girish’s previous blockbuster Premalu. If Premalu grossed upwards of ₹120 crore, BKU is inching closer towards a figure that could be thrice as much.
The difference, Shyam feels, is in how BKU speaks to everyone. "Nivin’s Justin is a millennial and Mamitha’s Ashley is Gen Z; their parents aren’t shown to be evil either. When seen from their side, we understand where everyone’s coming from. We feel like we’ve met them all before.”
The proof of this is in the pudding, or the mysore pak as Glikson would have us believe. Played by Roshan Shanavas, Glikson is the neighbourhood flirt who is as much in love with Ashley as Justin is. But with the amount of admiration his character has been receiving, Roshan jokes that Glikson is the real hero of the film for him. “I wake up these days with hundreds of messages on Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook,” says the actor who rose to fame thanks to his role in Fahadh Faasil’s Aavesham (2024).
Before he gets talking about what the film has done for him, he speaks specifically about his first day on set. He had only done a handful of films before this, and he admits to not knowing most of the actors in the film. “But it was like I had known all of them for years,” he says. “It’s not that Girishettan takes extra effort to create this camaraderie, but the mood is that of working with buddies. I can't recall a single issue on sets.”
Roshan underlines this need for comfort zone and explains how it’s vital for humour to work. “You do not feel judged,” he says. “To make a joke land, we may come with up a hundred ideas when the whole set looks at you. But when we try something new or suggest a line, Girishettan laughs out loud if he likes it. It’s a great feeling,” Roshan says, adding that it was his suggestion to bump straight into a group of drama artistes in a chaotic scene set in Ashley’s college. Glikson’s embarrassment here resulted in one of the wildest laughs in the theatre.
But for Shameer Khan, who plays Brinto in the film, reading the script before the making was an equally entertaining experience. “Of course, we’ve improved too but you can easily read the script like you’re reading a novel. I was told that I will be playing Brinto but you begin to forget that after a point. The script is so well-written that you laugh out loud as you’re reading and all the characters come alive. The movie only takes it several steps ahead.”
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit's Secret Sauce
This could be the reason why each viewer leaves the screen with a different favourite character. What surprises him at times is how even familiar situations and setups result in a scene that feels utterly new. As Shameer sees it, Girish's gift to write such cinema is enigmatic. “If I knew his secret sauce to write such characters, then I'd be the director of Malayalam cinema’s biggest hit.”
It’s the same magic trick Sangeeth Prathap too has been trying to crack. He played Joel Davis in BKU, doubling up as both Justin’s younger brother and an avant-garde short film aficionado.
Before his turn as the much-loved Amal Davis in Girish’s own Premalu, he has also worked as an editor in many Malayalam films. “I’ve seen his process from up close, right from the Thanneer Mathan days. We became close and he was someone I would always be in touch with, even if we weren't talking about work. It’s how I behave in real life too and maybe that draws him to cast me in his films,” he says. “He’s not looking for anything cinematic. It’s about the behaviour.”
When Fiction Feels Personal
It’s a combination of all of this that has resulted in BKU becoming a cast-favourite, even when they watch it as an audience. “But I genuinely cannot decide between all of Girish’s five films,” Shameer points out. “I’ve seen all of his films multiple times and I think I will continue to keep watching them.”
Roshan loves Thaneer Mathan Dinangal but his favourite Girish film remains Premalu. “It’s a film with a certain inexplicable magic”. His favourite scene from BKU has to be the one in which his character Glikson pulls up a chair from a crowd and finds a place to be seated right in front of Ashley, in an obvious reference from Allu Arjun’s Telugu film Happy (2006).
As for Meenakshi, who plays Riya Moreli in the film, she can't get enough of Glikson, along with Baiju played by Suresh Krishna.
“But my favorite scene in BKU has to be the one in which Nivin chettan breaks down after breakup,” she says. “We’ve seen Nivin chettan cry before in films like Premam (2015), but over here, it’s only when you see the tears fall that you notice he’s crying. It’s very internal. Not only do you sense how much he loves Ashley, but you understand so much about Justin and how sincerely he loved the girl from his childhood. We feel his pain and that’s why these characters become so important to us, staying with us months after the movie is over.”