For M’town, engineers donning the greasepaint is no news. Many techies have started off with small roles and have bagged prominent ones in the long run. Yet another engineer joins the league with a powerful role through Biju Menon-starrer Anuraga Karikkin Vellam. Thiruvananthapuram native Naji Mohammad Baji has given a brilliant performance as Sony alias Paal Kuppy in the film, his second movie.
Naji explains how he got into the project, which eventually changed his fate as an actor. “Though I have acted in a small role in the movie Celebration, it did not get noticed. I was waiting for a good chance when my friend, film editor Ajai Rahul told me about Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, which had his friend Arun A.R. as one of the assistant directors. I went for the auditions where they gave me several situations to perform. At the end of the day, I was selected to portray Sony,” he recalls.
Naji says Sony is not at all like him. “Sony is a pavam, a silent, cool guy. He cannot be compared with me. In real life, I am almost like Asif’s character Abhi,” he says. Behind his character’s nickname Paal Kuppi is a small story. “From the first day itself, Rahman had told me that Sony will be having a nickname, which was not finalised then. He had asked everyone to find a good nickname and started canning the other scenes. One day, when my scene was filming, he suddenly told Asif that my character will be called Paal Kuppi. I still don’t know the real reason behind that name,” he says. “Luckily, in real life I don’t have a nickname. My friends are ok with my long name -—Naji Mohammad Baji,” he laughs.
Naji says that the support from whole crew, especially Khalid Rahman and co-actors, made things easy while performing. “Rahman has instructed me to continue on the sets even when scenes without me were being filmed. He wanted me to understand the continuity and mood of the scenes. I was there for eight days like an assistant director and I really enjoyed the whole process of film production” says the actor, who has not yet finalised his next project.
