Failure is easy, success comes with baggage: Prithviraj Sukumaran

By Sugandha Rawal

New Delhi, Jan 28 (IANS) Prithviraj Sukumaran isn't scared of failure and has detached himself from getting carried away with success. The southern film industry's multi-faceted star says success comes with a temptation to tread the same path, and that is hard to ignore.

"Every film, regardless of being a success or a failure or anything in between, teaches you something. You might not sometimes realise what it taught you, but down the line, there would be a lesson in it," Prithviraj told IANS on the phone from Kochi.

"What I am today is pretty much the sum aggregate of all that I have gone through in the past 16 years. I actually have no complaints. After doing more than 100 films, producing so many films, directing one, distributing films and singing for films, if I want more I will be becoming greedy," added the actor, who made his debut in 2002 with critically acclaimed Malayalam film "Nandanam".

Prithviraj, who is looking forward to his production venture with Sony Pictures India with "Nine", asserted: "Failure doesn't scare me. And neither success. I am equally detached to both."

How does he do that?

"Failure is easy to handle because once you fail, the options are very simple...like 'try something different' or 'maybe if you do the same thing, do it in a different way'.

"Success comes with a baggage. When you are successful, there is a lot of temptation to not foray outside of your boundaries and just stick to what is successful. It is very tempting because it is very easy to do," said the son of late veteran actor Sukumaran and actress Mallika.

From taking up diverse roles to going behind the camera to getting into the business of filmmaking to singing for films -- Prithviraj has always tried to expand his horizons.

Though he has backed several projects like "Indian Rupee", "Kadal Kadannu Oru Maathukutty", "Double Barrel" and "Anuraga Karikkin Vellam", Malayalam project "Nine" is the first film from his production banner Prithviraj Productions. He has co-produced it with Sony Pictures India, which also marks the studio's foray into regional cinema in India.

Written and directed by Jenuse Mohamed, the sci-fi horror thriller narrates story of a troubled father and his son. It is set against the backdrop of a global event that takes place over the period of nine days. Prithviraj plays Albert Louis, an astrophysicist working in a fictitious institute called ISRC. It will release on February 7.

"We all are quite kicked about the way the film has shaped up. And we are confident that it is different from what we have seen. The genre itself has not been attempted before," said Prithviraj, who will be making his directorial debut with Malayalam language film "Lucifer".

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in )