The comedy serial M80 Moosa may have been off the television screen for a couple of years now, but Vinod Kovoor is still identified by most people for his fine performance in the title role. He had enacted the role of Moosa, the fish vendor, in some 350 episodes.
Now Vinod is all set to play a fish seller in real life. No, you won’t actually find him selling fish moving around on a Bajaj M80, but he is setting up a stall that will deliver fish to homes.
One thing the coronavirus has taught him these past five months is that most performing artistes need to look for another vocation to survive. “Actors, singers, mimics and other performing artistes have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic and I too have been feeling the pinch,” Vinod tells The Hindu.
“I have had no income for the last five months, and now I realise that I have to do something else to survive,” he says.
Lockdown blues
During the lockdown he kept himself busy by directing three short films and giving motivational talks and lessons to children on mimicry and singing through social media.
“But I didn't gain anything financially from those efforts and in fact lost money while making those films. The main source of my income for performers like me is the stage. And I don’t see any live shows happening in the near future,” he says
Vinod says he was recently told that it could be another two years before performers like him got an invitation from a Gulf country. “That chat with an organiser worried me,” he says. “You know it is the shows in the Gulf nations that really pay well. So people like me have to think of other options,” he adds.
Vinod felt a shop to sell fresh, marinated fish could do well in the city. “So I have joined hands with a couple of friends for this venture,” he says. “We will open our business around Onam. Yes, it is strange that I am doing something similar to what I portrayed most as an actor, in the role of M80 Moosa.”
Life could imitate art sometimes, after all.