Like kids his age, Mohanlal too grew up listening to stories. Bhima was one character that held a lot of fascination for him. Yet, it took MT’s Randamoozham for the world to understand Bhima beyond his physique. It’s Mohanlal blogging about the character, perhaps a first such elaborate piece from the actor who is to get into the epic character’s skin for The Mahabharatha, touted as the Rs 1000 crore movie adaptation of Jnanpith laureate M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s novel Randamoozham.
The lengthy seven page piece points to a fact that this is not the first time he is playing Bhima. It happened not just once or twice, but four times on screen and stage. Interestingly, the first time was as MT’s Bhima. “Bhima has followed me unknowingly for a larger part of my life. Before turning the Bhima of Randamoozham I became MT sir’s Bhima in 1985 movie Rangam... In 1999, I was Bhima in Vanaprastham. Years later, in 2003, there was Bhima in the programme Kathayattam, the stage realisation of prominent characters in Malayalam literature. Then Mukesh and I brought on stage Chayamukhi where I played Bhima,” the actor notes.
Mohanlal says, none other than MT himself has suggested his name for the plum role. He thankfully acknowledges B.R. Shetty, who came forward to bankroll a mega project, the dream of V.A. Shrikumar Menon and salutes the script of MT. The next two years, he anticipates dedicating himself for the character.
