Vijay Babu wasn't the first choice to play Pappan sir

The character of Pappan sir in Phillips and the Monkey Pencatapulted Vijay Babu's career as an actor. But it turns out that the actor wasn't the first choice for the role. The co-producer of the film Sandra Thomas said they were looking at casting actor Sidharth Bharathan for the role. "We were in talks with Sidharth to play the role of Pappan sir but there were a few scheduling issues as he was busy with another project," she says, adding that's when the team decided to cast its co-producer Vijay for the role.
Turns out the decision worked wonders for his career.