Actor-filmmaker Basil Joseph made some candid comments about his career in a recent interview. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India in a recent roundtable conversation, the filmmaker-turned-actor said that he has been prioritising direction from the start of his career. "I was very ambitious about being a director," he said before revealing that he gravitated towards acting by chance. "Actor was accidental for survival at first place, because being a director, it is tough to earn a stable income," Basil revealed. He then pointed at the actors sitting next to him and quipped about the challenges that come with roping in actors for projects, especially those with date and schedule issues. Basil's comments brought big laughs from the other actors who participated in the conversation, including, but not limited to, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Rukmini Vasanth, and Vicky Kaushal. According to Anurag Kashyap, Basil spent two years chasing a Shaktimaan film adaptation, circling Ranveer Singh for the lead role, only for the project to not materialise.
Basil Joseph also revealed that he acted because his friends would approach him for playing sidekicks to the heroes in their films. "Whenever hero wins, my character will also win. Whenever hero loses, my character will also lose," Basil shared. Basil said that he began to take acting seriously when lead roles came to him. The filmmaker-actor revealed that he pushed himself to do better work to satisfy the expectations of his producers, technicians, and the audience.
While Basil faced some criticism at the start of his career for some apparent repitition in his performance, he answered his detractors with a critically acclaimed performance in Ponman, opposite Lijomol Jose and Sajin Gopu.
Basil Joseph was most recently seen in a cameo in director Sathyan Anthikad's Hridayapoorvam, opposite Mohanlal and Malavika Mohanan. He is set to make his Tamil debut with a role in director Sudha Kongara's Parasakthi, co-starring Sivakarthikeyan, Ravi Mohan, Sreeleela, and Atharvaa, among others. His upcoming films also include first-time director Arun Anirudhan's Athiradi, co-starring Tovino and Vineeth Sreenivasan. He is also set to become a producer.
