Megastar Mammootty has been an icon in the Malayalam film industry for the past 50 years and has graced the screen in multiple languages in his long and illustrious career. He is widely regarded as one of the best actors in the country and the world.
The 69-year-old actor, born Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail made his debut in 1971 and has since gone on to garner 3 National Film Awards, 7 Kerala State Awards and 13 Filmfare Awards South. He was also awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award by the Government of India in 1988. He has acted in over 6 languages and also has one of the largest fan followings in the country.
Known for his fitness and good looks, Mammootty has constantly experimented with his looks on screen and is also known for taking up projects that kept challenging him over the years. He has acted as characters with definite shades of grey while also portraying the conventional hero with aplomb. He is known for easily switching between the stylish urban and the macho rural male with equal ease. The only heel in his armour is probably dancing, for which he has poked fun at himself in multiple movies.
A lawyer by qualification, Mammootty practised law for a few years before quitting to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. His son Dulquer Salmaan or DQ is a popular actor in the Malayalam and Tamil film industries while his brother Ibrahim Kutty is a well-known face in Malayalam television. His nephew Maqbool Salmaan is also an actor in Malayalam cinema.
Our sources in the Malayalam industry had told us a while ago that there were plans to begin work on a mega-budget biopic of the actor to commemorate Mammootty’s 50th year in cinema in 2021. The film was set to go on floors last year but was pushed forward after the first wave of the pandemic. The second wave has now threatened to push the start of the schedule even further.
The film’s story was set to chronicle the actors’ early life, entry into films, meteoric rise and relationships within the industry. Mammootty is also rumoured to have worked closely with the scriptwriters to ensure that no key moments in his life are missed out. Our source tells us that a high profile team was also set in place by the production house Friday Film House helmed by Vijay Babu. Mani Ratnam was to direct the film with Santosh Sivan, A R Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Peter Hein and Sabu Cyril set to join the project as well.
However, the whole project has hit a snag. The veteran actor is now claimed to have backed out of playing himself in the much-awaited biopic. This would have been an extremely rare scenario where an actor got to play himself in a movie about his life and Mammootty would have gone down in history as the only actor to do so in Indian cinema. Other notable personalities who have done this include Muhammed Ali and Howard Stern.

Read the full article at: http://thedailyvanilla.com/2021/05/11/megastar-mammootty-refuses-the-chance-to-play-himself-in-his-biopic/