On September 28, 2012, a 22-year-old techie at Infosys uploaded the 17-minute short film Priyamvada Kaatharayano―a love story with a quirky twist―on YouTube. Shot on a zero-budget model with ample support from friends and colleagues, the short opened to him the alleyways of Mollywood. Cut to 2022, and the techie, Basil Joseph, has grown wiser, smarter and more serious in filmmaking. In December, he was named the best director at the Asian Academy Awards for creating India’s first rural superhero, Minnal Murali. Today, this young filmmaker aspires to take Malayalam and Indian cinema to the global audience.
In fact, 2022 was a phenomenal year for Joseph. While the first half cemented his position as a star director―with Minnal Murali making it to the list of Netflix’s top 10 most-watched non-English films worldwide―the second half turned him into a sought-after lead actor in Malayalam. Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, a dramedy made with a budget of 05 crore, collected over 045 crore at the box office in 25 days. The film, in which he plays a short-tempered husband, earned both critical and commercial acclaim. His roles in Palthu Janwar and Dear Friend also won appreciation. “2022 was the year I got better acting opportunities,” Joseph told THE WEEK. “Until then, I used to get only one-liner characters―as a comic or the hero’s friend and ally. All those roles had limitations. They mostly depended on visual comedy or counter-comedy. These comedy characters had a burden to make people laugh. They were risky. But as an actor, these characters did not have much depth. However, this year I got more serious characters.” Compared with direction, acting is easy for him, he says. But he adds that he enjoys the pressure and responsibility of direction as it gives him the opportunity to push his own boundaries.
Joseph was born in a Syrian Jacobite Christian family. His father, Joseph Pallippatt, is a priest. While Joseph feels he got his positivity and gentle nature from his father, he thanks his mother for passing on her sense of humour.
“The witty stories of Kunjithomman, my maternal grandfather, had quite a fan base in his place,” he says. “Well-done Vasu―a character in my first feature film, Kunjiramayanam―was an exaggerated version of my grandfather.”
Kunjiramayanam (2015) was appreciated for presenting the quixotic characters and bizarre myths in a village. The movie’s cinematic style was similar to that of prominent Malayalam filmmakers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. “The films of Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikad, Sreenivasan and Raghunath Paleri formed the base of my cinematic language,” says Joseph. “I used to watch a lot of Tamil films, too. I feel that my film grammar is something that emerged from all these influences. Kunjiramayanam was inspired by the new-wave Tamil cinema of the 2010s. The influence of directors like Balaji Mohan, Nalan Kumarasamy and Karthik Subbaraj could be seen in it. I started making short films after watching theirs.” But his film grammar has majorly evolved over the years. “Once I came into cinema, I started following more western films. Steven Spielberg, Edgar Wright, Guy Ritchie and Charlie Chaplin have all inspired my filmmaking,” he says.
Ever since he entered filmmaking, Joseph has been building a cinematic world of his own. There were references to his short films Priyamvada… and Oru Thundu Padam (2013) in his debut feature. He set his second movie―the sports drama Godha (2017)―adjacent to Desom, the land of Kunjiramayanam; its characters, too, make a cameo. His biggest hit, Minnal Murali, also includes cameo appearances of characters from his other films. This world-building, it seems, is partly a way for him to remember his growth and evolution in filmmaking. Joseph considers himself an “aggressive” person when it comes to trying every avenue open to him. “Even as a child, I was like that,” he says. “I was part of every programme―whether drama, choir or sports. I was the shortest boy in my class. Still, I used to participate in events like the high jump.” As a teenager, he wanted to become a cricket player. “I used to go and play in every kandam (field),” he says. “But it was not a serious or focused desire. Every boy of that age idolised Sachin Tendulkar and wished to become like him.”
Despite being involved in all these “extra-curricular” activities, he was good in studies, too. A good showing in the Kerala engineering entrance exams got him admission into the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET), where he met his future wife, Elizabeth. Joseph was active in cultural activities at CET. “I was the arts club secretary,” he says. “I participated in college competitions in and outside Kerala.” During his training at Infosys in Mysuru, he became the main character of a mega show, Parichay, that involved artists, actors and dancers from the techie community. But his phase of making short films started when he got transferred to Thiruvananthapuram. He made the films with the help of the filmmaking club, Reels. Leaving a stable IT job for something as unpredictable as cinema was a difficult decision. It was also considered “odd” by his church community. His parents, too, had reservations, but they backed him. And, now, the actor-director is a sought-after all-rounder smashing sixes and fours in Malayalam cinema with his craft and confidence.