Not only does Rinosh George have the gift of the gab but a conversation with him is laced with humour. The only problem is you need to keep reminding him to slow down so that you can catch up to what he is saying. “Yeah, I used to get that a lot while working as a radio jockey. A lot of listeners called up saying I spoke way too fast,” he laughs.
The 26-year-old “Mallu” born and brought up in Bengaluru is floating on cloud nine as a childhood dream of his is fulfilled - to star in a movie. The protagonist in MC Jithin’s film Nonsense, Rinosh plays a bright but misunderstood student called Arun, better known as Nonsense, who has a passion for BMX bicycles. “BMX bike is an off-road sport bicycle used for racing and stunt riding. As Jithin wanted the scenes to look realistic, I had a trainer from Mumbai train me in BMX cycle riding. As BMX riders remove the brakes of their bicycles for stunts, I did the same. One controls the bicycle with one’s feet. While shooting for the movie, I had to keep a constant watch over the cycle as I was afraid one of the crew members would borrow the cycle thinking it is like the regular ones and get hurt.”
Shot in Iritty, Kannur, the director’s hometown, Rinosh says the entire shoot was smooth as the story was one Jithin had carried with him for six years. “He knew where he wanted each scene to be shot, how he wanted us to interpret the characters, et al. The school we shot at, is bang opposite his home in Iritty. We also shot at his childhood haunts.”
Rinosh met Jithin six years ago during the shoot of Rinosh’s music video ‘Believe’. “The script for Nonsense was in his head even then. He shared the storyline with me as he felt I would fit the role of the protagonist. Although we did hunt high and low for a producer, no one was willing to fund a movie titled Nonsense. We were fortunate Johny Sagariga, who liked my music video, agreed to produce it.”
Rinosh says he always knew that he wanted a career in films, right from his school days after watching Kunchacko Boban in Niram. “His style, his youthfulness, the songs... I was captivated. Hrithik Roshan’s Kaho Na Pyaar Hai also caught my fancy. Watching the actors perform, I thought being able to carry a tune was a criterion to becoming an actor. I didnt know the actors were lipsyncing to the music,” says Rinosh, a “extremelly loud bathroom singer”.
He adds saying: “I was born to entertain. Ever since I can remember I have always craved to be in the limelight. I enjoy keeping people entertained, be it with my endless yapping, my jokes... My bathroom was my stage, and the mirror, my audience. I would spend hours in the bathroom, practising scenes from movies and belting out songs.”
Rinosh started creating music videos as he enjoys writing songs. Although his first few music videos were a flop, his last two videos, ‘This is Bengaluru’ and ‘I’m a Mallu’ went viral. He laughs as he says: “My parents, TJ George and Rosy George, have stopped worrying about how I will earn my bread and butter, although in reality, I am still surviving on kanji, after my name began appearing in print.”
Rinosh, who has acted in a few of Jithin’s short films such as Chilappol Chilar and Loud Truth and has done the music and rendered the songs for Nonsense, hopes to star in more films. Right now, he is working on more music videos. “Hopefully, they too will go viral.”