‘Not Trisha or Abhirami’: Kamal Haasan reveals to whom Joju George would declare his love every morning on Thug Life sets

Joju George, who plays a pivotal role in Thug Life, couldn’t hide his emotions when talking about working with the two stalwarts of Indian cinema. “These are happenings that are beyond my dreams. I struggled in cinema, and came up through the ranks over the years. I am a student of cinema, and these are two names that taught me a lot about the same,” said Joju George.

Interestingly, while talking at the event, Kamal Haasan jocularly pointed out that the women in the film never say ‘I love You’ to him in Thug Life. “This is not such a film, and I have made my peace with it. But the only voice that constantly said, ‘I Love You’ was neither Abhirami nor Trisha, but Joju George. He would start the day with a wide smile, and declare his love for me,” said Kamal Haasan.

In response, Joju George, simply said, “How can you not love Kamal sir? But there was also a mix of fear and trepidation too.” When asked to explain, Joju George narrated how he had properly rehearsed for his first scene with Kamal Haasan, and the moment he heard his voice, and shared the frame with him, he started fumbling. “Mani sir called me because my acting is good, right? So, I wanted to show him that he had made the right choice. But in the first scene with Kamal sir, I lost it. There were multiple takes, and it is purely because it was unnerving to be in the same frame with him.”

This was a common conversation topic across the board as every actor in the event, including Trisha, Silambarasan, Abhirami, and Ashok Selvan discussed how it wasn’t easy to work with the actor and filmmaker who were on their bucket list. “There were times when I was just standing between Kamal sir and Mani sir, and I didn’t know what to say, or if I could even move from there,” said Silambarasan, and Joju George came back in to share why he was most comfortable with STR. ‘

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“He was also afraid of Kamal sir, so we started bonding over the same,” said Joju George, who is not just carving an interesting career in Kerala, but also treading in Tamil with the right kind of films. The actor, who made his Tamil debut with Karthik Subbaraj-Dhanush’s Jagame Thandhiram, will next be seen in Suriya’s Retro, which will be out on May 1. On the other hand, Thug Life, which will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada, is set to hit the screes on June 5.