Krishna Sankar moves from comedy to tough guy with Kudukku 2025

Krishna Sankar’s tough look for Bilahari’s Kudukku 2025 had everyone do a double take. He followed it up with a pushup face off with the director, that also left social media followers in awe.
It looks like the futuristic thriller will give viewers more surprises into the actor’s skills. Moving from the lovable, funny friend in films such as Premam and Njandukalude Nattil Oridavela, he plays the lead role in Kudukku 2025, and he says he decided to start with a scene which shows the tough nature of his character, Maaran.“I have been doing light-hearted roles, so, even though Bila and cinematographer Abhi (Abhimanue Viswanath) had some reservations, I felt I needed to start with the tough part so that I could get into character,” he says, adding that that helped him to get into Maaran’s skin.
“My earlier characters, whether it is Koya from Premam or Jithu in Bila’s debut, Allu Ramendran, had shades of me and my humour in them. Maaran is different from these, and so was a challenge, so I had to push myself out of my comfort zone. That is why I wanted to start with the tough characterisation. I needed to know for myself that I could carry this off, and Bila and Abhi’s reactions showed that they were happy with how I pulled it off. In fact, everyone on the shoot ended up calling me Maaran,” he says.
He has a very different look for another lead character he plays in Shyam Mohan’s Kochaal, which had almost finished shoot when the lockdown was declared. The last schedule is now expected to resume in January. The film also has Murali Gopi and Shine Tom Chacko in prominent roles. “I play Kochaal, which is a nickname for a small statured guy. After several failures, he fulfils his aim of becoming a policeman, but ends up becoming a suspect in a case,” Krishna Sankar explains.

When the lockdown stopped shoot, Krishna Sankar had started growing out his beard, when Bilahari told him that that look seemed apt for Maaran. The actor started training for the action sequences on Kudukku 2025, before the shoot started and got a well-toned body, but this was not the first time that he was changing his physical appearance to get into character.
He put on weight - going from 68kg to 83kg - to play a guy who failed as an aspiring actor in Thobama, and then lost the bulge for Allu Ramendran. “It was difficult to put on - my mother even suggested pazhan kanji - and similarly tough to lose weight,” says the actor, adding that he is happy to be getting more diverse scripts now.
“I am still quite a newbie; after all, I am only 14 films old. But as an actor, my aim is to keep the audience feeling that I bring something fresh to a part and that I manage to reinvent myself,” he says.