Fahadh Faasil in the frame. (DC File Photo)
Fahadh Faasil has spent the past few years moving comfortably between Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu cinema, but his latest outing required him to work in a space that was new to him in more ways than one. ‘Don’t Trouble The Trouble’, directed by Shashank Yeleti, marks his Telugu film debut as an actor, and Fahadh was particular about doing his own lines in the language.
“I was very particular that I wanted to dub. I wanted to do the lines myself,” he says. Having worked largely in Malayalam, he wanted to approach the Telugu film in much the same way he would a film back home. “We have to learn our lines. So I made sure that we functioned that way here also. There was no prompting on sets.”
For Fahadh, the challenge was not simply about memorising Telugu lines. He wanted to get into the rhythm of the language while performing. “We shot in Telugu. I was very particular about that. So next time for sure,” he says when asked if he now knows Telugu well enough.
The difference in working environments was something he noticed too. Fahadh is used to relatively smaller groups on the sets he has worked on in Kerala, where there is a certain quietness while scenes are being performed. “We didn’t do sing songs but it was almost like a sing song where there was no prompting. People didn’t make noise. We do only sing songs back home,” he says.

That silence, he adds, was something he had become accustomed to. “There is a basic silence on the sets. When I started working outside Kerala that was rare. So much noise in sets.” With large productions involving hundreds of people, Fahadh says the scale was different from what he was used to. “And of course 300-400 people. That is the only thing I told them. I functioned with small people, small group. Let’s try and do that.”

Yet, when asked whether acting or production was tougher, his answer is surprisingly uncomplicated. “Production is very easy. And I enjoy production. I really enjoy production.”
His experience in Hyderabad has also gone beyond the film set. Fahadh says he has spent around one and a half years in the city and has built a circle around him. “I love it. I was here for one and a half years now. I have friends, family. So many people around me.”
There is also a sense that the city and the industry have given him an education of their own. Speaking about his experience of working here, Fahadh points to the professionalism and planning he encountered. “Good food. Good celebration. Good parties. And you know very professional.” He also reveals his excitement about meeting Nandamuri Balakrishna, whose famous dialogue is incidentally the title of his Telugu debut. He says, “I grew up watching his films and It was nice to see him welcome me into the industry.”
He says the people he worked with were clear about what they were making and how they wanted to take it forward. “They know their product more than anything. They are very clear about their product. They are very clear about how to go about with the product. How to cater it.”
For Fahadh, that became a learning experience. “It was a learning curve for me and I learned a lot from their professionalism and planning.”
His willingness to learn has been a recurring part of his journey across industries. Fahadh says working with different actors has shown him that there is no single way of approaching the craft. His experience with Kamal Haasan, for instance, was one such discovery.
“When I worked with Kamal sir. It was a discovery itself. The way he processes. The way he performs. The way he deals with his actors,” he recalls.
For Fahadh, that process of observing other actors is part of what makes working across industries interesting. “There is so much to learn from any talent that you collaborate with. Everyone has their own. Let’s say cooking. You may not cook the way somebody cooks. But your food will taste good. So every artist will have a technique.”
He says discovering those individual techniques is something he enjoys. “It’s very interesting to watch it closely and discover it.”
That curiosity also extends to the characters he chooses to play. In ‘Don’t Trouble The Trouble’, his character Suri goes through a journey from grey towards white. Asked about his attraction to grey characters, Fahadh connects that complexity to human nature itself.
“I think every human has that and I love to explore,” he says. For Fahadh, the freedom to explore does not mean entering a film without a clear structure. He wants room to change things while shooting, but there are certain fundamentals that have to be in place before he begins.
“I insist on changing the script as we shoot,” he says. “Organically we all feel something needs to be changed. We should have the freedom to change it. We shouldn’t stick to the law.”
At the same time, he says he needs to know where the story is headed. “I won’t start a film without a beginning, midpoint and end. These three aspects need to be in place for me to start shooting.”
Once that structure is established, there is room for the unexpected. “Once you have that structuring, then you play around.” Fahadh compares filmmaking to a cricket match, where preparation does not guarantee the result. “Making a film is like playing a cricket match. You don’t know if you are going to win or lose. But the idea is to have fun.”
That attitude perhaps comes from a career that did not follow a straightforward path. Fahadh, who made his acting debut in 2002, recalls that his first film did not work. Two days after its release, he left for America.
“My first film flopped. I left two days after the release. I left to America,” he says.
He had gone there to pursue engineering, having received a scholarship, but the experience of leaving India was also tied to the disappointment of his debut. “The pain of losing kept bothering me. I wanted to get out of that thought.”
For a while, he thought he might stay in America permanently. “Maybe at that point I thought that I am going to be in America for the rest of my life. Not coming back to India, except for holidays.”
He eventually stayed away for six years. Those years, however, changed his relationship with cinema. “I met so many people who got me introduced to world cinema, great books…and met amazing human beings.” That exposure slowly created the desire to return. “That six years triggered the want to come back and do one film.”
He did come back. And the one film he had imagined doing became the beginning of a much longer journey. “And that one film became 66 films,” he adds.
Now, as he continues moving between languages and industries, Fahadh does not seem to see those transitions as something that can be mastered once and for all. Each collaboration brings its own learning, and each industry its own way of working.
His Telugu journey is still at an early stage. He says he has another film with Arka Media coming up, which he plans to begin next year. For now, ‘Don’t Trouble The Trouble’ marks his first full Telugu outing, one he approached by learning the language, performing his own lines and adapting to a very different working environment.
And despite having spent a year and a half in Hyderabad, his answer on whether he now knows Telugu remains characteristically understated.
“Next time. Next time for sure.”
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