Mammookka’s greatness is known only to those who are close with him: Ajith Kollam
Ajith Kollam is an actor who has predominantly done negative roles. He has acted in around 500 movies in Malayalam and Tamil languages. Recently he wrote a piece about Mammootty. He dedicated it as an Eid treat to the lakhs of Mammootty fans.
Ajith worked with Mammootty for the first time in 1984 in Ee Lokam Ivde Kure Manushyar. Over the three decades of his acting career, Ajith has worked with Mammootty in more than 50 movies in his three decade long career.
In the write-up, Ajith mentioned about how Mammootty encouraged and supported him in his acting career. Once during the shoot of director Fazil’s Puthiya Poonthennal, Ajith was offered to play the role of a kidnapper. But on the morning of the shoot day, he was informed by Maniyan Pilla Raju that Mammootty had asked not to give this particular role to Ajith. He was shattered on hearing this.
Late in that night, Mammootty along with Cochin Haneefa visited Ajith’s place. Mammootty told him that he has great potential as an actor and should not be wasting it by playing small time negative roles only to be bashed by the heroes. Mammootty advised him to look out for other roles or else he will be playing the same goon kind of roles till the end of his career.
Ajith now realizes how true Mammootty’s words were as he played the same kind of role for the most part of his career. Mammootty was the one who introduced Ajith to director Joshiy. He later acted in several movies directed by Joshiy.
Ajith has written that only people close to Mammootty know his greatness. He honestly supports those who are talented and even goes out of the way to help them. He has introduced many technicians and actors to the industry but they tend to forget all that easily, writes Ajith.
Ajith Kollam made his debut as a scenarist and filmmaker with the movie titled as Calling Bell. He along with Mammukoya, Devan, Shalu Kurien, Kalabhavan Shajon and Manikuttan played the major roles.
