A public exchange between actor Joju George and filmmaker Lijo Jose Pellissery – both acclaimed artistes in Malayalam cinema – surprised fans and followers, given the two have worked together in a noted film like Churuli. The movie was in the eye of the storm when it came out in 2021, as characters spoke an expletive-laden language. This also led to an offended viewer taking the filmmakers to court. There were demands to take the film off the streaming platform it was released in, but the court ruled that there was no harm in the film – certified ‘A’ and clearly not meant for the under-18 – staying online.
But four years later, the movie is back in the picture since Joju George – who plays a key role in the climax – recounted the difficult times he had to go through because of his portrayal of Thankan chettan, a man with a foul mouth. In particular, a clip of him hurling abuses had gone viral, not helping his reputation.
Joju said in a recent interview that the controversy of a roadblock was just dying down when the Churuli clip went viral and he was on everyone’s screen spouting expletives. This had given him sleepless nights and even his family was troubled by the image. His daughter, Joju said, faced awkward situations in school. He had thought that the version with the expletives would only be sent for film festivals or awards and the other version – toned down for a larger audience – would be released for the public. At the end of this byte, given in an interview to The New Indian Express, Joju also claimed that he had not received remuneration for Churuli.
A day later, Lijo, the director of Churuli and acclaimed films like Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam and Ee Ma Yau, wrote a reply on his Facebook page, addressing Joju and adding proof of a paycheck of Rs 5,90,000 given to the actor. Lijo said that the post was in consideration of the mental stress of the producers and that there was no misunderstanding regarding the release of the film. “Thankan chettan was a man who knew this language well,” he said.
Joju, in another video interview after this, said that while he was a man who uses profanities just like the rest of the society, he did not wish it to be in the public domain and causing embarrassment to his family. Reacting to Lijo’s post about his paycheck, Joju said that the director should put out the whole agreement.
In the years after Churuli, Joju grew to be more popular, and recently appeared in two Tamil films alongside superstars like Surya (in Retro) and Kamal Haasan (Thug Life). Last year, he made his directorial debut with the Malayalam film Pani.