‘Conditioned to writing only loving fathers,’ says Gautham Menon ahead of Malayalam film Anuragam’s release

In an interview with Film Companion, Gautham Menon spoke about his fixation with father characters and how he doesn’t like portraying fathers with negative shades. “I am conditioned to writing only loving and caring fathers. It is because of everything that happened to me. My father has a strong presence in my life. So, I don’t like to portray fathers as negative characters,” he said.

In one of the recent episodes of FTQ with Rekha Menon, Menon got candid about the struggles of being an actor while being a director at heart. As a director whose career-best films are from the romance genre, GVM says that initially, he had apprehensions about Anuragam since it had certain scenes that were his signature ones such as the main character playing the guitar during a romantic moment.

“When Shahad and writer Aswin Jose came to narrate the story to me, I had doubts if they were trying to take stuff from my personality or from what I am and make it into the film.

“But, something grabbed me about the story. I liked it straight away. In today’s time, to see a film that has so many characters unfolding with romance and love as the theme worked for me. It was almost like watching an anthology of films. I liked that idea as a screenplay. I saw the (final cut of the) film and I liked it.”

Gautham Vasudev Menon previously made appearances in the Malayalam films Naam (2018), Trance (2020), and Lovefully Yours Veda (2023).

Apart from GVM, Anuragam features Lena, Gouri G Krishnan, Aswin Jose, Devayani, Johny Antony, Sheela, and Sudheesh. The film is set for theatre release on May 5.