“It was I who recommended him to Murugadoss in Kaththi”

Neil Nitin Mukesh’s role of the handsome villain Chirag in the recent Vijay starrer was much talked about. But how did he bag this role? There is an interesting connect of Thuppakki with this.

Gautam Kurup who acted as one of the menacing sleeper cells in Thuppakki was apparently the one who recommended Neil Nitin Mukesh to the director.

Talking exclusively to behindwoods, Gautam Kurup says, “Neil Nitin Mukesh is a very good friend of mine and when Murugadoss sir was looking out for a suave, stylish villain for Kaththi, I suggested Neil”.

When asked why he did not want to be cast in the film, Kurup jocularly says that Murugadoss wanted somebody very smart looking.

Gautam is actually a line producer who had turned actor and has been in the film production for more than two decades. As an actor he was seen in the Malayalam film Kandahar with Amitabh Bachchan and Mohan Lal and is awaiting his next Malayalam release Picket 43 with Prithviraj. He was recently seen as the ominous villain Oni in Lakshmy Ramakrishnan’s Nerungi Vaa Muthamidathey.