when vinayakan made history by winning the state award for best actor this year the first person he thanked was his director rajeev ravi for casting him in the role of ganga in kammatipaadam indeed it is not often that a nonglamourous actor is given a role as important as the hero much less a mainstream movie being made about such characters rajeev ravi talks to us about his views on the matter what do you feel about the jurys decisioni applaud it there was a doubt in many minds that only a hero can be given the best actor award not a character actor but vinayakan has been given the best actor award nothing less often even at the national level only glamourised people are given such top awards our awards in malayalam were on those lines in the recent years but now the jury is taking bold decisions and giving awards for experimental films like in the 80s i specially applaud the award given to director vidhu such awards are meant for encouraging filmmakers like hervinayakans win also owes a lot to the fact that he was cast in such an important role in a movie which described the lives of another section of society there might be many more vinayakans around who dont get the right platform actually very few films come out about people from such sections of society its imprinted in the minds of the viewers as well that the main characters in films should be mostly upper class and upper caste to bring about a change we should start changing the narratives we are fed on from school onwards the problem is with popular perspective and to take a film like kammatipaadam to people wasnt easy the general public dont watch offbeat films but a films completion is when the common man watches it not just the intellectuals and artists i believe if they dont accept it there is no point in making a film however now is a great phase for malayalam cinema youngsters like dileesh pothan are doing good cinema there is a fine balance of films for every pulimurugan there is a maheshinte prathikaramdid you ever have apprehensions while choosing vinayakan for such an important role what was his reaction to the castingim lucky in that im someone who has an alternate profession as a cinematographer so im not much bothered about the outcome of a film i just do my kind of cinema i would like people to accept them if they dont i will feel sad but it wont stop me from doing the films i want to do i will never do a safe filmi have known vinayakan since college and we grew up in the same neighbourhood the real life kammatipaadam he knew such a project was coming we had been discussing this for long so it was no big surprise for himhow were you able to portray people of a different section of society so accurately