Even more than a month after its release, the Minnal Murali wave continues to hold audiences in thrall. The Malayalam superhero film set in a village in Kerala has become a global sensation, buoyed by its story, simplicity and sentimental value. Standing tall, of course, is a compelling performance by Tovino Thomas who lends both innocence and power to his eponymous character that metamorphoses from a tailor to a superhero after being struck by a lightning bolt.

The Basil Joeph-directed film is the third Indian film to be in Netflix’s Global Top 10 list of non-English movies. Reason enough for The Telegraph to catch up with Tovino — who has a bunch of memorable acts in a decade-old career — on the Minnal Murali magic and more.

Minnal Murali is a global phenom. Did you see this picture of a couple in Kerala who had a Minnal Murali-themed wedding last week?

(Laughs) Yes, yes! I also put it up on my Instagram story. It feels very special. The teaser of Minnal Murali was released in August 2020, but because of the pandemic we had to wait till December 2021 to release it. In the one-and-half years between the teaser and the film release, people constantly kept talking about Minnal Murali. The hype never went down... viewers made fan art of Minnal Murali and kept gifting them to me. The interest around the film remained constant.

I think that the gap of a year-and-a-half proved to be an advantage to us because by the time the film came, a large section of the audience was already familiar with Minnal Murali. The good thing is that the film lived up to the expectations of the audience. Because of the reach of Netflix, this film has now travelled all over the world... it’s the first film of mine that such a large number of people have watched. The numbers are huge. It’s no longer just a Malayalam film... it’s a global film.

Even more than a month after release, Minnal Murali continues to feature among the Top 3 on the Netflix charts. That’s a huge achievement...

It makes me very happy. That’s what I dreamt of when I started acting, and my dream is now only getting bigger. I am actually living my dream. Many film-makers and actors and members of the audience, of course, have loved the film and are also coming forward to appreciate it. That doesn’t happen all the time.

While you were making Minnal Murali, did the team realise how big it would become?

That was the dream we had for Minnal Murali. We were relying on the fact that the superhero theme is universal. What we thought of primarily was, ‘How can we make it a little different?’ From the one-line idea that Basil (Joseph, director) pitched to me to the final draft, they had put so much into the movie... when I read the final script, I was amazed, both as a friend and as an actor. I was proud of the work Basil and (writers) Arun (Anirudhan) and Justin (Mathew) had put in. I felt safe after reading that script (laughs).

Basil and I have worked together before in Godha (2017) and I knew his process. I expected the film to do well in India, but the huge international reach that we have got is definitely surprising. Even before the pandemic happened, our plan was to theatrically release Minnal Murali in five Indian languages. We wanted a wide, pan-India release because it has such a universal theme. With Netflix, it released in a manner much bigger than what we had dreamt of.

Did it ever play on your mind that your superhero film was trying to cater to an Indian audience that has such wide access to Marvel and DC now? The superhero genre is something that Bollywood has been struggling to crack for a long time now...

Yes, we knew that. And that’s why we wanted Minnal Murali to look original. Of course, we had our inspirations, like every superhero movie made is influenced by the ones that have come before it. We wanted our film to look authentic. Almost every superhero film in Hollywood is set in New York, we set ours in an imaginary village named Kurukkanmoola. Basil has actually set each of his three films in villages, and kind of made a cinematic universe through them (laughs). His first film Kunjiramayanam was set in Desham and Godha takes place in Kannadikkal.

In our imaginary village in Minnal Murali, we didn’t have any skyscrapers or fancy cars. We wanted it to look real and work minimally on the VFX. We didn’t want a VFX world in this film... we wanted it to look real. We had to brainstorm a lot on how a superhero in Kurukkanmoola would behave, without any of the fancy trappings that we see in films of this genre. It’s not that he gets struck by lightning and wakes up the next morning and starts saving people. He doesn’t even realise at first that he has superpowers, and that was the fun part of it. And hence, we didn’t take blind inspirations or references from other superhero movies, though we do have the familiar tropes that we have used in a fresh manner. It was a great effort from the team that enabled us to do that... it wasn’t easy.

How much does the runaway success of Minnal Murali change things for you as an actor?

The fact of the matter is that however good I act in a film, it will only make a mark if a large number of people watch it (smiles). I am very satisfied with the work I have done so far, but Minnal Murali has, of course, taken my impact as an actor to another level. It all depends on how many people watch your work.

Your career has been defined by not only protagonist parts, but also roles in which you aren’t so much in the spotlight, and yet you manage to leave a mark. Apart from the fact that you are an incredible actor, where does that confidence of accepting side character parts come from?

In Hollywood, the biggest stars have no issues about taking on smaller parts. I always try to do something like that. I am very content with what I have done so far. If I keep on doing positive lead roles, I will become limited and predictable as an actor. I have no problems in taking a different role, even if that is a side character. My advantage is that I can play the lead as well as be a character actor, and I am accepted as both. I am and actor who just goes with the flow... and good things happen to me (smiles).

Being an integral part of the industry for so many years now, what do you think sets the Malayalam film industry apart from the rest?

This is an industry that doesn’t believe in extravaganza. That’s how it’s always been. The stories churned out are almost always subtle and heartwarming. The films are relatable and communicate with the audience. When I came in, I saw the kind of respect the industry gets everywhere because of the work done by our seniors. We just had to follow in their path.

This is an industry that can’t boast about the budgets at its disposal. Most of the time, we work on tight budgets. So if we don’t have the budget, what can we excel in? We try and work on our content, we find ways to make our films look good.