Actor Mithun Jai Sankar on playing Nitushan in ‘Tourist Family’ and life after ‘Aavesham’-OxBig News Network

Mithun in Tourist Family
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Five months after his debut movie Aavesham’s release in April 2024, actor Mithun Jai Sankar received a call from Million Dollar Studios in Chennai, asking him to go there for the narration of Tourist Family. Mithun and Abishan Jeevinth, director of the movie, spent a day together, understanding the plot and bouncing off dialogues.

The Tamil feel-good comedy is currently running in theatres. Apart from the storyline, it was the experienced cast, headlined by Sasikumar and Simran, which excited Mithun further about the movie that explores the life of an illegal Sri Lankan migrant family living in Chennai. Mithun was roped in to play Sasikumar and Simran’s son, Nitushan, a young adult reeling from the family’s move to India. The movie deals with the family’s efforts to find their footing in a new place, while evading the authorities.

“Even though I was excited, I was very nervous to speak to them,” says Mithun over a phone call from Kochi. “Simran ma’am mostly talked about Malayalam movies, especially Aavesham, and Sasikumar sir spoke about his experience working on Master, his Malayalam movie. He told me how he tried to learn the language by speaking to people in Kerala, but they all responded in Tamil.”

A still from Tourist Family
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Other than what he had picked up by watching movies, Mithun had no experience conversing in Tamil. However, the actor stepped up with the help of Abhishan. Also, the character speaks Tamil in a Sri Lankan dialect, which was dubbed by Mithun himself. “I spent two weeks preparing for the role with an emphasis on the dialect. Words like unakku (meaning you) become ungalku, pesaruthu (meaning to speak) become kadhakiruthu. Everyone in the my ‘family’ was spontaneous with their dialogues. May be because of their familiarity to the language. But I was not able to do it. They would play around with the dialogues, which I tried later,” says Mithun.

A still from Tourist Family
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The actor shares great chemistry with Kamalesh Jagan, who essays his younger brother Mulli. “I spent most of the time with him. We had great offscreen chemistry as well. He is more experienced than I am as an actor and would tell me funny stories from other sets. He is a lot like his character ,” says Mithun, who is also being lauded for the chemistry with a female character, after clips of their proposal scene from the movie have gone viral.

Abishan— who has also played a pivotal role in the movie — would demonstrate what he wants, says the actor. “However, at the same time, he would give me the freedom to explore the character and make it my own,” Mithun recalls.

Originally from Poojappura in Thiruvananthapuram, Mithun had a stellar start to his acting life, essaying Bibin in Aavesham directed by Jithu Madhavan, starring Fahadh Faasil.

“People still call me Bibin even a year after the movie’s release. They come and talk to me. A lot of people saw that movie in Tamil Nadu too, and that’s how I even got this role,” says Mithun.

A statistics graduate from Christ Nagar College in Thiruvananthapuram, Mithun joined coaching classes for the SSC exam after graduation. “While I was preparing for the exams, I quit the coaching and started making reels,” says Mithun, who later created a YouTube channel, Poojappuranam, with a few friends in his locality. The channel made satirical videos about developments in cinema, among other things. “The channel was the beginning for me as an actor. Before that, as a child, I would shoot visuals in the camera of my dad’s keypad phones with my younger brother as my model,” he says.

Mithun is currently discussing his next projects. “I just want to do good movies, with a space for me to perform,” says the actor.