Kochi: Tovino Thomas was in pain because of a bad ear infection, but he dove straight into the water without a whimper of protest. Director Jude Anthany Joseph needed to shoot the final scene of his film on the devastating floods that had ravaged Kerala in 2018. And so the Malayali actor kept diving into the artificial lake they had set up for the scene.
“He gave as many shots as I needed for it to be perfect,” said Anthany. “I was worried that being underwater might have caused him more discomfort. But all he was concerned about was the bubble he had managed to create in the final shot, and wanted to know what I thought of it.”
Anthany’s film, 2018: Everyone is a Hero—named after the year of the floods—became the first Malayalam-language film to cross the Rs 200-crore mark. It cemented Thomas’ place as one of the leading actors in the Kerala film industry who can hold his own alongside Fahadh Faasil, Dulquer Salmaan, Nivin Pauly, and Prithviraj Sukumaran.
For Thomas, acting has been a lifelong dream. His first time in front of the camera, more than ten years ago, is a snapshot in his memory, which he shared with his nearly 8 million followers on Instagram.
“On January 28, 2012, at 9:30 I stood in front of the camera for Prabhuvinte Makkal in a song,” he says with a grin.
As an actor, Thomas is a shapeshifter of sorts, straddling villainy and virtuosity with ease. He played a cunning politician’s son in his second film ABCD: American-Born Confused Desi (2013) starring Dulquer Salmaan. Three years later, he was back with a swagger as Edgar in Style (2016), and again explored his dark side in Maari 2 (2018), where he played Thanatos aka Gangadhar Beeja. With his deadpan eyes and cold smile, the tattooed Thanatos holds his own against Maari (Dhanush).
“I make enough money to live comfortably. For me, choosing certain roles is about the excitement and learning that comes with new things,” says Thomas.
But it was the 2017 film Mayaanadhi that capitulated him into a pop-culture icon. It wasn’t his first or even second movie as the solo lead, but it was his first lead role in a romance. Even here, he’s on the run after injuring a policeman. The same year saw the release of four other films—Godha, Oru Mexican Aparatha, Ezra, and Tharangam—where Thomas had starring roles. Since then, his career graph has been on the rise, both in terms of commercial success and range of roles he has taken up.
If clips of him checking his phone in a bus for a text from Aparna (Aishwarya Lekshmi) with a lovelorn smile on his face in Mayaanadhi made him meme-worthy, then his interpretation of Jaison, the tailor who was struck by lightning to get superpowers, in the Netflix production Minnal Murali (2021), widened his fan base across India and abroad.
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Unafraid to take chances
Playing the role of the superhero in Minnal Murali was not Thomas’s first choice. “I wanted to play the villain because it had a strong emotional story,” said the actor, whose favourite superhero is Superman. But director and friend Basil Joseph convinced him otherwise.
The result is not a hyper-masculine caped crusader. Thomas brings vulnerability to the role, which avoids seeing trauma as a catalyst in the origin story. It is the everyday trifles, heartbreak, and the need to do the right thing that shape the reluctant hero’s character. His easy charm lights up every frame, whether he is taking a photo in his ‘Abibas’ t-shirt for a visa, or throwing rings at a village fair to win his sister a puttu maker.
The film spread through word-of-mouth making Tovino Thomas a household name.
The Basil-Tovino camaraderie has translated into several successful collaborations, including the 2017 wrestling film Godha (2017), which is set in Punjab. It was Thomas’s first experience of shooting in North India.
His versatility as an actor was on display in Thallumaala (2022), where his character, Manavaalan Wazim, undergoes multiple transformations. From a small-town street-smart young man in a mundu and shirt, he becomes a polished Dubai-return internet sensation in cargos, jumper, a cap, and glasses.
The films saw him dance—and sing—for his supper for the first time. “I was very nervous about it,” said Thomas. Thallumaala grossed Rs 75 crore and acquired cult status, especially among the youth. Thomas breezes through the role of a youngster who wants to be a ‘good’ son, earn his money and marry the love of his life, even as he cannot keep his temper in check.
The same year, Thomas played the carefree, charming lawyer Ebin Thomas in Vaashi (2022) — a compelling courtroom drama, minus the unnecessary frills and bows. The film is about a couple, newly appointed public prosecutor Ebin (Tovino Thomas) and defence lawyer Madhavi (Keerthy Suresh), whose marriage is tested when they find themselves on opposite ends of a case involving consent under manipulation.
Evin is charming and, at times, a tad careless about Madhavi’s struggle as a female lawyer, who is trying to be successful in a male-dominated field. It is Thomas’s eyes and body language that stop him from appearing as a typical inconsiderate husband, unaware of his male privilege.
“My father is a lawyer, so I had to make sure that I played the part well, or he would not have let me enter the house,” he says with a laugh.
Also read: Sukumaran went from an English professor to Malayalam cinema’s most outspoken movie star
The transformative man
Like director-actor Basil Joseph, and even his older brother, Tovino Thomas too followed the tried and tested career path that is every Malayali parent’s ambition for their child. He became a software engineer and got a job (at Cognizant Technologies), before quitting it to become an entertainer.
His lawyer father wasn’t convinced, but gave him a year to prove himself in the film industry. Thomas relied on his brother for monetary help, and began sending his portfolio to any email ID he laid hands on—casting directors, actors, producers, including anyone from the industry active on social media.
“[During auditions] I was told I did not look Malayali enough,” he says. He had done a few short films by then, and a couple of ads.
“I got my first break after 7-8 months,” Thomas said. But the film, which was about atheism, did not do well, and he found himself back to square one. He ended up as an assistant director in Theevram (2012).
Another couple of months passed before director Abrid Shine, whom Thomas considers a mentor, shared his portfolio with director Martin Prakkat, who rejected Thomas as “too scraggly”.
But Thomas tapped into his knack for transformations and makeovers, whether it was gaining weight or changing hairstyles to reinvent himself. It was something he knew well, having done it as a student at Tamil Nadu College of Engineering, Coimbatore. And it came in handy when he decided to convince Prakkat to give him the role of the minister’s son, Akhilesh Verma, in ABCD.
He turned up at Parakkat’s office, all groomed and plumed in a crisp white shirt and dhoti. Gone was the scraggly ‘boy’ and in his place was a young man who could be Akhilesh Verma. Parakkat wasn’t the only director who spotted Thomas’s talent. Filmmaker Akhil Paul, who scripted 7th Day (2014), where Thomas played Ebinsar, saw the potential in him.
“Even back then, there was clearly a star waiting to break out,” said Paul. The two have remained friends since.
Paul co-wrote and directed the crime thriller Forensic (2020), where Thomas plays Samuel John Kaatookaran. The actor once again impressed Paul with his dedication to the script. One of the scenes—the climax—called for Thomas to jump from the top of a high rock structure.
“There was a bed placed significantly below for a green mat CG shot. It was a fairly risky stunt and unfortunately, Tovino was called close to 15 times to perform the jump, which he did without a single protest,” said Paul, who will be directing the actor in his upcoming film, Identity.
Thomas routinely performs his own stunts, and doesn’t stop until he feels he has given his best take. Even for Minnal Murali, Thomas would enthusiastically offer to do the ‘special effects’ moment without the assistance of VFX or CGI. He gave nearly 60 takes so that a lota, which he had to kick during a fight sequence, would land perfectly on top of a pyramid of utensils.
Each film is special for the actor. Godha, which was shot in Punjab, gave him a lot of good memories. “I bought a kg of sweets, thinking I would eat it with Wamiqa (Gabbi) and Basil and others. But they went for a shoot, and I was bored and ate everything. I ended up with an upset stomach upset.”
But Thomas now watches his sugar consumption and weight closely. “ I have a family now, and I want to be healthy for them. So I have cut down on sugar,” he grinned. Married to his high school sweetheart Lydia, he is a proud father of daughter Izza and son Tahaan.
His children love his movies, even though Tahaan is a bit too young to enjoy them much. “I watched Minnal Murali for the first time with my family and Basil and his. Both of us were looking at their faces to see if we had managed to create the kind of film we wanted,” he said.
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Not crossing over—yet
Thomas is moving at his own pace, and is not bothered about taking risks as an actor, and now a producer.
He turned producer with Kilometers and Kilometers in 2020, followed by Kaala (2021) and Vazhakku (2022). The three films are markedly different from each other, and reflect his desire to tell different stories and explore a myriad of roles.
His plate is overflowing. From the period drama Ajayante Randaam to the thriller Identity, he’s got 13 projects in the pipeline.
At a time when pan-India has become the biggest buzzword in Indian cinema, Malayali actors have started exploring roles in the Hindi film industry too. But Thomas has bucked the trend—so far, with his only non-Malayalam film being Maari 2. He has declined multiple Hindi films including Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha. “I do get offers from other industries, but some didn’t work out because the scripts didn’t excite me and some didn’t work because of dates,” the actor told Hindustan Times in an interview last December..
For now, Tovino Thomas is batting for the Malayalam film industry.