Nivin Pauly had spent over a decade being the actor Malayalam cinema turned to when it needed someone utterly believable — the boy next door who somehow made ordinary heartbreak, ordinary joy, feel enormous. It was a reputation built quietly, film by film, since he first stepped in front of a camera for Vineeth Sreenivasan’s directorial debut, Malarvaadi Arts Club, in 2010. Stardom followed two years later with Thattathin Marayathu, and by the time Premam arrived in 2015, he was no longer just a promising young actor — he was the actor an entire generation associated with first love.

So when Bethlehem Kudumba Unit recently became the highest-grossing Malayalam film worldwide, crossing Rs 325 crore globally, it wasn’t a fluke of a single hit. It was the pay-off of a career spent choosing roles with care — police dramas, family dramas, political satires, romances — and quietly collecting the proof along the way, including a Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut for Neram and a Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Malayalam for Action Hero Biju.

Talk to Nivin about the record, though, and he steered the conversation somewhere else entirely.

“I am sure the next biggest hit is already cooking somewhere in Malayalam cinema, and hopefully it will be served soon. The fact that one film can hold the record only for a certain period shows that our industry is continuing to grow,” he told India Today Digital in an exclusive interview.

It was a very Nivin Pauly answer — deflecting credit toward the industry rather than claiming it for himself. And when he did talk about what the film’s success actually meant to him, it wasn’t the box office he lingered on.

“What makes me happiest is not really the number. It’s seeing families coming together to watch the film. There are people who have watched it more than twice. They watch it once with their friends, then come back with their family,” he said.

One image in particular stayed with him. “What felt especially beautiful to me was seeing youngsters take their grandparents to the theatre. That was truly heartwarming,” he added. That gratitude ran through everything, he said. “People are giving us their time, coming back to the theatre, and bringing the people they love with them. I have a lot of respect and gratitude for that,” he explained.

And records, he was quick to point out, were the least interesting part of the equation. “Numbers and records will eventually be forgotten. But if a film stays with people, and if a character stays with them even after years, that is something much more special for an actor.”

A love story that refused to make a statement

Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, his latest hit, is centred on an age-gap romance — the kind of premise that could easily have tipped into controversy-baiting. Nivin said that was precisely what didn’t draw him to it.

“What interested me first was that the film wasn’t trying to make a statement just for the sake of making one. It was telling a very human story. Relationships are complicated, and sometimes life doesn’t fit neatly into the boxes we create for it,” he said.

He was drawn to the person before the premise. “I was more curious about the people and their emotions than the controversy around the subject. I wanted to understand the character, his choices and the emotional world that the film was creating,” he added.

That instinct came with a responsibility he was conscious of throughout. “We knew that a subject like this had to be handled with a certain responsibility and sensitivity,” he added. And it showed in how carefully the film treated its characters.

Elaborating further, he said, “For me, the beauty of the film is that it allows the audience to experience the characters as people first, rather than simply judging them based on the situation they find themselves in. Cinema doesn’t always have to give you an answer; sometimes it can simply make you look at a question differently.”

Ten years since Premam and the road back

It had been almost a decade since Premam turned Nivin into one of Malayalam cinema’s most beloved faces — and the years that followed weren’t easy ones. Many had believed at the time that he was destined for pan-India stardom, but a string of weak script choices stalled that momentum.

By his own admission, there had been a period of real uncertainty, with people close to him pushing him to move beyond comic, entertainer roles and prove his range in other genres. The turnaround came with Sarvam Maya, a supernatural comedy released in December 2025 that went on to gross Rs 150 crore — a performance critics called one of his most confident in years, and one that placed him firmly back in the spotlight. It was, by most accounts, his comeback. Looking back at everything in between, he didn’t reach for a highlight reel — he reached for honesty.

“It has been a proper journey with everything that comes with it. There have been some wonderful highs, some difficult phases, films that worked, films that didn’t work, and moments where I had to step back and look at myself and the choices I was making,” he said.

That self-reflection, more than any single award, seemed to be what he credited for getting him here. “Ten years is a long time. I have changed as a person, as an actor and probably even as someone who looks at cinema,” he said, adding, “Premam happened at a completely different stage of my life. Today, I look at that film with immense gratitude, but I don’t want to keep chasing what happened then. I want to keep moving and discovering what I can do next.”

Even the setbacks, he said, did their job. “They make you value the good days a little more and keep you grounded when things are going well,” he explained.

It was that same grounded quality that made us understand how he talked about the moment, with a hit film breaking records and audiences responding the way few had anticipated. There was no triumph in his voice — only gratitude. “Cinema has given me far more than I ever imagined when I started. The journey hasn’t always been easy, but every turn has brought me somewhere I needed to be,” he said.

Next up for Nivin was the Tamil film Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai, releasing October 1, followed by Benz — proof that even mid-record, he was already looking ahead to what came next.

– Ends

Published On:

Sep 24, 2026 15:25 IST