Ad filmmaker Sijoy Varghese juggles preaching and acting

Are acting in movies and preaching in public contradictory? Not for Sijoy Varghese, 43, managing director of TVC Factory, one of India’s top ad and event makers with 8 directors operating from Dubai, Mumbai, and Kochi. For the multifaceted actor - people know him as the freshly fit policeman in the Dileep film Avatharam - the role of spirituality in real life even censors him from signing up for immoral characters. He recently turned down an offer of a villain role who has a rape scene. “How I can show this movie to my children?” he asks. The scriptwriter of Isha segment in 5 Sundarikal, a Malayalam movie and director of many ad films, Sijoy is choosy with a difference. He checks if the character he gets is morally sound. Sijoy was in Kuwait this past weekend as a preacher in a program held by Syro Malabar Cultural Association, one of the organizations of expat Catholics in Kuwait. He also talked to children’s group, women’s wing and in the general meeting using his popularity to convey moral messages.

“No, I’m not a preacher in the traditional sense,” he said when I met him at his brother Rejoy’s flat in Farwaniya. “I had a life changing experience which helped to realize life’s greater roles and I’m only sharing what I had discovered, just like people share a feel-good something through WhatsApp.” Keeping up with technology, he said reminiscing about his role in Avatharam, is what makes a director like Joshi still sought after in the film industry. Sijoy’s first film was Dulqar Salman starrer ABCD and now he will join the SiddiqueMammootty comedy Bhaskar the Rascal produced by Anto Joseph.

“NRIs (Non Resident Indians) have greater chances in the movie world now,” Sijoy said quoting news that a micro-story shared on the social media is making rants and the storywriter is asked for film script. “Expats in the Gulf have more time management, perfectly good for creative endeavors” he said.