It has been around 12 years since he entered film industry in the role of an assistant director, and it is his sixth year as a full-time actor. Shine Tom Chacko, who started playing hero roles after a few sidekick characters, has now something to cherish as two films in which he essays the lead role have reached the screens on adjacent days. Shine who acted as Antony in Dhum and Kinder in Popcorn is overwhelmed by the response from the releasing centres. “Popcorn and Dhum are two different kinds of films. While the first one is an out-and-out fun film, the second one is set against the backdrop of a serious scenario,” the actor says.
Though Popcorn was released a day after Dhum, it was the first film that he signed and completed. “It was a few days before I left for Bahrain to act in T.V. Chandran sir’s Mohavalayam that screenwriter Shani Khader came to me with the script of Popcorn. He could give me convincing answers to several questions I had on the subject. In fact, the fun element in the screenplay is what prompted me to commit to that film. Later, when I returned from Bahrain, I sat with Aneesh Upasana (director of Popcorn), who has been my friend for the past few years,” says Shine about film which was partially shot in Nasik. It was when he completed the shooting that Anuram, the director of Dhum approached him.
“I was looking for a subject which was completely different from Popcorn. It was then that the action-oriented Dhum came to me,” says the actor who was recently seen as Suku, a thug, in Midhun Manuel Thomas’s Ann Maria Kalippilanu. “Though I have only a few scenes in that film, it has helped a lot to get more reach among family audiences. I think that after Ithihasa and Kammattipadam, this film has played a crucial role in my career. And I am glad to say that more producers are coming forward to fund films with me as the hero. But then it is a fact that some excellent subjects are still not getting producers,” says the actor, who is in Hyderabad, shooting for Jiyen Krishnakumar’s Tiyaan, which has actor siblings Prithviraj and Indrajith in the lead roles. “I am not free to talk about the subject or my role in the film. All I can say right now is I am a part of this film.”
