Basil Joseph has more stories to tell and he’s only just begun. At 33, the award-winning actor-filmmaker from Kerala has been at the helm of only three films, but he has already established himself as a director with an eye for both critical acclaim and commercial success. And he did this after checking all the boxes that every good Malayali family lists for their child: become an engineer and work for Infosys.
His journey from a techie to a sought-after actor and filmmaker who is rumoured to be in the running to direct Sony Pictures India’s Shaktimaan, is as intriguing and entertaining as the kind of movies he makes.
As an actor, he is the vehicle for publicity on social media. His shoulder-shrug dance reel for Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey (2022), became an instant viral hit with more than 13 million views. The film too, made on a budget of Rs 5 crore, earned a whopping Rs 42 crore.
But it was his Rs 20 crore low-budget superhero film Minnal Murali (2021) with its moustachioed, lungi-clad crime fighters and villains that made him a household name not just in Kerala but in 40 countries including Nigeria, Argentina and Brazil. It had over 32 million views on Netflix and was one of the top three most-watched non-English films globally on the OTT platform at the time of its release.
We would tell ourselves that maybe even Messi saw our film – Basil
What sets him apart from many of his peers is his ability to depict larger-than-life stories like intergenerational trauma or superheroes in a small-town setting. Every character counts; there are no placeholders. And his movies become a stepping stone for the stories he plants in the audience’s imagination.
“I want to make quality commercial films that can go global, international,” said Basil.
Even as a newly minted engineer at Infosys, Basil knew he wanted to make films. On 28 September 2012, when he was barely 22, he uploaded his 17-minute short film Priyamvada Kaatharayano on YouTube. Shot on a non-existent budget, and supported by friends and colleagues, it was a lighthearted film about four engineers. It broke the sermonish, serious mould that shorts are usually known for.
“Definitely the upcoming actor & director – Basil Joseph,” read a prophetic comment written 10 years ago.
“It became what we now call viral. I sent it to every possible actor from all industries on Facebook in the hope that someone would call back,” said Basil. It worked. Actor Aju Varghese saw and shared the film.
“We had a mini celebration at Infosys, once that happened,” said Basil. Soon enough, Varghese showed it to actor, producer, singer and director Vineeth Srinivasan, and Basil got his entry point in the industry. Vineeth offered Basil the chance to assist him in the film Thira in 2013.
With this, he joined the league of Kerala’s actors and directors— like Jude Anthany Joseph, the man behind the 2023 blockbuster 2018 and actor Tovino Thomas—who turned their backs on their engineering careers.
He’s since climbed his way up and while other production houses and industries are busy creating either multiverses or spyverses, Basil has quietly created ‘basilverse’ built on quirky characters, folklore and the guarantee that anything can happen.
“After all Marvel and DC cannot show villages, no?” said Basil, with his trademark disarming smile.
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Global recognition
By the time Minnal Murali (2021) was ready, there was superhero fatigue in Hollywood and Bollywood. For the most part, after Krrish 3 nearly a decade ago, superheroes have crashed and burned in the Hindi film industry. Films like A Flying Jatt (2016) and Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018) could not capture the audience’s attention.
But Basil had his vision ready. Moustache, lungis, paddy fields and the rolling hills of the Western Ghats —that is his superhero world. The fictional world is set in a village not from where he grew up.
“My idea was to make a normal uncle a supervillain, and he will travel in a local bus, smoke a beedi, and the hero and supervillain will stand in a queue at a village wedding feast for food,” said Basil.
Tovino Thomas was his first choice to play the superhero. “He took 10 seconds to say yes to Minanl Murali,” laughed Basil. The film won the Asian Academy Creative Award in 2022.
Basil grew up in the picturesque district of Wayanad, taking part in Sunday school activities, and singing in the church choir. There were not many opportunities to watch films in theatres. But the few times he did go to the cinema hall were enough to cement his love for the movies.
“I remember watching My Dear Kuttichathan [the 1984 film was re-released in 1997], which was remade as Chota Chetan. I remember coming out of the hall and talking about it in school, and it became my core memory. I wanted Minnal Murali to be the core memory for kids today,” he said.
He planned a theatre release, but the pandemic struck a heavy blow to his dream. His producers decided to release it on Netflix instead.
Basil was so upset that he didn’t take the calls of his producers for two weeks. Netflix, however, marketed the small-budget Malayalam film like a big-budget movie, releasing it on 16 December 2021.
It was a hit. In July this year, Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle collaborated with the film’s producers, Minnal Murali’s thrilling adventures are now immortalised in the pages of comic books.
Set in the 1990s, Minnal Murali tells the story of a tailor Jaison (Tovino Thomas), who gets superpowers after being struck by lightning, in a small village, Kurukkanmoola. Shibu (Guru Somasundaram), a helper at a tea shop is also struck by lightning, but his journey leads him to be a villain. What happens next is the story of the superhero film.
“I think what makes our partnership work is that we are both from small towns, and we understand how they work,” said Tovino. The duo have teamed up to deliver solid performances — from Godha (2017) to Virus (2019).
Music, humour and drama were the three aspects Basil knew were his team’s forte, and their aim was to make this the beating heart of the film. VFX and action would just be the bonus.
But Basil was not ready to sacrifice his vision of a village superhero at the altar of VFX. The engineer in him took over quickly. From getting an improvised ‘walkalator’ made of a plywood platform with wheels to show Minnal Murali running fast, alongside a bus on a highway, to using practical effects to show a beedi moving in a tea shop, Basil and his team used all the physics and engineering skills possible. The result was a film firmly rooted in Kerala’s countryside with the quality of a Marvel movie — it made people sit up and take notice all over the world.
While the makers initially assumed that the film was doing well in countries with significant Malayali immigrant population, it was trending in 40 countries including Argentina.
“We would tell ourselves that maybe even Messi saw our film,” said Basil.
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From YouTube to the big screen
From a choir boy in a school in Wayanad to an all-rounder in the College of Engineering, Trivandrum—where he graduated with a Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) in mechanical engineering—Basil followed the tried and tested path that lakhs of Malayalis have taken before him. But his love for the movies grew quietly within him.
In engineering college, he found an outlet in annual festivals.
“When he was at the helm, the college cultural festival was arguably the most entertaining. Most people saw the entertainer, the good-natured side of Basil immediately. What was perhaps not as obvious was the go-getter attitude which also was there from the very beginning,” said Bharat K Lakshman, who was Basil’s junior in college.
His trysts with the arts continued in Infosys during his training days in Mysuru. He became the main character of a mega show, Parichay, that involved artists, actors and dancers from the engineering community. These experiences strengthened his desire to be a part of the film world.
But Basil didn’t know how to make a movie, until his short film. His family, especially his father—a priest in the local Syrian Christian Jacobite church–had reservations about his desire to make films. Like any other middle-class Indian family, they prioritised a stable career and salary over the perceived vagaries of the film industry. The stereotype of film stars being drug users or heavy smokers or drinkers still persists.
His then girlfriend, now wife, Elizabeth Joseph, encouraged him to follow his heart.
“I knew Basil was not happy with what he was doing. So I told him that he should choose what will,” she said.
Basil wasn’t above telling the occasional white lie to allay his parents’ fears. He assured them that he would have a job at Infosys in case his career in films failed.
“It helped that Vineeth Srinivasan had a good image. It was almost like they were sending me to a missionary school, and it would be safe,” said Basil.
Vineeth, the son of actor Sreenivasan, entered the industry as a playback singer in 2002. Now, much like his iconic father, he is a multi-hyphenate. What was more important to Basil’s family was his clean image. Though he has since branched out, his films and overall brand are still associated with feel-good family entertainment.
At the age of 25, Basil put out his very first film, Kunjiramayanam (2015), starring both Vineeth and his brother Dhyan. It is a comedy set in the quaint village of Desam where the rivalry between ‘Dubai’ Kunjiraman (Vineeth Sreenivasan) and his uncle ‘Well done’ Vasu (Mammukoya) plays out. Deeply entertaining and often illogical, the film paints an accurate picture of the countryside and its hard-to-explain eccentricities. That is Basil’s signature masterstroke.
But on the opening day, there was an audio glitch in the theatre hall that he and Elizabeth were in. She had travelled all the way to Kochi to watch the film.
“The movie ran for 10 minutes and then the audio stopped working. It started again, and the same thing happened again,” said Elizabeth. There was a commotion with everyone asking what had gone wrong.
“Basil came out of the hall and said I am done. This is it.”
But soon reports started pouring in that the screenings were going well in the other theatres. The shows were housefull. The film went on to earn Rs 10.08 crore.
Basil has a knack for deftly handling sensitive, layered topics with a sprinkling of disarming humour. Every day situational humour propels the plot forward in all his films. He uses it as a foil to handle tricky and sticky subjects like sexism, caste and regional prejudices.
But the humour is balanced out by knowledge of the underlying politics. In a scene in his second film, Godha, Aanjaneya (Tovino Thomas) and his friend look for restaurants that serve beef in Chandigarh, and accidentally ask for beef fry and Kerala porotta in front of gau rakshaks.
While his friend is getting beaten up, Aanjaneya in an attempt to pacify the gau rakshaks says: “Cow is our mother. How can we eat her?”
The North-South divide, addressed throughout the film, is resolved in the final moments when the residents of a small village in Kerala cheer wrestling champion Aditi Singh (Wamiqa Gabbi) in a local gatta kushti, wrestling match.
It is Basil’s deft direction that does not make the premise hollow or the trope tired. Despite comparisons, Godha is the opposite of the 2016 Salman Khan starrer, Sultan and Aamir Khan’s Dangal. Basil approaches it as a comedy, using humour to make his point and making sure that it is the young woman who gets to shine. Made on a budget of Rs 6 crore, the film was a blockbuster, earning Rs 30 crore.
There is a keen understanding of the workings of heart and emotion in Basil’s films. Be it in Godha, where the film is more about Aditi’s ambition as a wrestler, or in Jaison wanting to make the right use of his powers as the superhero in Minnal Murali. Above all, his films are a celebration of the human spirit, of kindness and simplicity.
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On the right course
Humour has remained a central element in Basil’s career, both as an actor and director. There is never a dull moment when Basil is in a room, said actor Darshana Rajendran, who played his wife in Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey.
“In the scene where I have to kick Rajesh [played by Basil]. Both of us broke into laughter simultaneously, and once we started, we just could not stop,” said Rajendran, recalling the shoot for their film.
Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey is a satirical version of The Great Indian Kitchen (2021). Jaya (Darshana) gets married to poultry farm owner Rajesh, after being assured that she will get to continue her studies after marriage. But she soon finds out that Rajesh is abusive, and she secretly learns karate from YouTube to give him a taste of his own violence.
Basil excels as the obnoxious husband. He may be not tall or physically intimidating, but he constantly twirls his moustache and beats his wife to assert his masculinity. He doesn’t quite enjoy it when the roles are reversed.
For Basil, acting is the liminal space between making films, and a way to earn money. Between 2021 and 2022, he played a priest (Father Kevin) in the Fahadh Faasil starrer Joji (2021), then an obnoxious nurse who returns to Kerala to celebrate his 30th birthday in Jan. E. Man (2021) and an animator who finds himself working as a livestock inspector in a village in Palthu Janwar (2022). The latter brings to mind the character played by Jitendra Kumar in the hit Amazon Prime series, Panchayat. The naive, unassuming Prasoon, played by Basil, makes you root for him as he develops a deep bond with the animals he is responsible for.
“Even when Palthu Janwar loses its moorings, Basil Joseph is the one element that stays on course,” writes movie critic Anna M Vetticad, in her review.
But direction remains his first love. He’s deeply influenced by the works of directors such as Priyadarshan, Balaji Mohan, Nalan Kumarasamy and Karthik Subbaraj. But during the Covid-19-induced lockdown, Basil decided to expand his film grammar. He read extensively, watched films, and even held film festivals where he would curate films for himself to teach and broaden his horizon, while making copious notes. His influences now include Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright, Guy Ritchie and Charlie Chaplin, and also the Korean way of filmmaking.
“Basil once showed me his notes from all the films he has watched, and I was baffled at how detailed they are, and how he has organised all of his material. It made me realise why he makes the kind of films he does, and how he is so good at it,” said Rajendran.
Despite all the accolades coming his way, Basil is firm in his intention to not stay in his comfort zone.
He finds that the concept of ‘pan India’ has created additional pressure in the current space of movie making.
“No one is sure how to make a pan-Indian film, but everyone wants to do it,” said Basil.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)