"Have to go through drastic physical transformation": Prithviraj Sukumaran on his role in 'The Goat Life'

Mumbai (Maharashtra), April 9 : Prithviraj Sukumaran's 'Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life)' did well at the box office. The actor is currently occupied with a hit film in theatres, another due this week and several more in the works, reported Variety.

'Aadujeevitham' ('The Goat Life'), directed by Blessy, is based on Benyamin's bestseller 2008 novel of the same name and portrays the actual tale of Najeeb, an immigrant labourer from Kerala who is forced into slavery on a distant goat farm in a Middle Eastern nation.

Sukumaran plays Najeeb. The film was released over the Easter weekend and has grossed USD 14 million to date. This makes it the sixth highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time.

Production began in 2018 and principal photography took place over several schedules across Kerala, Jordan and Algeria.

"I knew as an actor that this was a prerequisite, that to portray the entire character arc, I'd have to go through this drastic physical transformation of losing a lot of weight and looking very emaciated," Sukumaran told Variety. The actor increased his weight to 98 kilos for the Kerala part of the shoot and for the scenes where he first arrives in the Middle East. The production then paused for seven months while Sukumaran shed 31 kilos. "I surprised myself and everyone in the film crew, because when I landed up the next time in Jordan, I was almost unrecognisable," Sukumaran said.

The actor did not anticipate COVID-19, which halted the filming immediately after a scene where his emaciated body was revealed, leaving the team stuck in locked-down Jordan for months. They ultimately returned after a year and a half, during which Sukumaran had to acquire weight to remain healthy.

"But then I had to redo the whole thing. I didn't count on having to do the whole weight loss transformation process two times, which I ended up having to do - because it's a trap. Once you get to that level and you do a portion of the film, then it almost becomes like a thought process in your head. 'No, I can't let it go.' I put in so much effort. I can't let all that go to waste," Sukumaran said, as per Variety.

"I know a lot of the [media] focus is on the physical transformation, but that is only a small part of the portrayal. At the very beginning, I had thought of the entire arc. And I had told Blessy-sir that it was going to be impossible for me as an actor to look at it as one long, singular character," Sukumaran said.

As per Variety, the actor and director divided the character's journey into a timeline of three weeks, three months and three years. "Once we had the idea and the timeline in mind, then it was up to me as an actor to interpret what the mental, emotional journey would be. Which is where we landed on this idea of helplessness, anger, and then coming to terms with the existence," Sukumaran said. The plan is now for "The Goat Life" to take a shot at the Oscars.

Sukumaran is currently wrapping Vipin Das' Malayalam-language comedy 'Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil', produced by his own Prithviraj Productions. The Kerala-based Malayalam-language film industry, where Sukumaran hails from, is known for its efficient budgets and focus on story over spectacle and is consequently the toast of India.

Three Malayalam films, 'Manjummel Boys', 'Premalu', and 'The Goat Life' (which debuted sixth in the United Kingdom), are among the top ten highest-grossing Indian films of 2024.

Sukumaran attributes the industry's success to a plethora of new-age filmmakers, writers, actors, and producers who are daring in their approach to cinema and an audience that responds to those aesthetics, as well as the establishment of a distribution network that takes films beyond Kerala to the rest of the world.

"I hope we don't lose sight of the fact that what originally made us so good is that we stuck to our strengths of saying original, real stories and within our own aesthetics, even when you look at mainstream commercial cinema of Malayalam," Sukumaran said.

"I hope this newfound success across territories does not put filmmakers in a zone of thinking, 'now we have to make cinema that will also cater to them,' because the films that started catering to them in the first place are still Malayalam cinema. So, I hope we stick to what we know best and not let money affect our thinking," reported Variety.

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