“I Was Desperate, Humiliated”: Mammootty’s Shocking Confession About Nearly Quitting Cinema After a Series of Flops
Before he became the indomitable force of Malayalam cinema, Mammootty faced a dark chapter in his career that nearly drove him to walk away from the spotlight forever.
In the mid-1980s, despite being lauded for his talent, even some of Mammootty’s finest films failed to make a mark at the box office. What followed was a string of commercial flops that tested not only his professional resilience but also his emotional strength.
In a raw and revealing 2002 interview with Karan Thapar on the BBC’s Face to Face, Mammootty bared the pain of that turbulent era. “It was a bad period for me. I thought I would not pick up again. I was desperate. I was humiliated badly as well,” he admitted. The emotional toll, he confessed, left him questioning his place in the industry and doubting his future.
Though he had begun refining his acting skills, audiences and critics remained unconvinced, branding his early work as forgettable or even exaggerated. The lack of recognition, combined with repeated failures, painted a bleak picture.
“Though I feel a little happy about it now, my experiences were very bad; people were underestimating me as an actor. That gave me a rebirth afterwards,” he said, hinting at how the setbacks eventually ignited a fierce comeback.
Years later, Mammootty’s relentless commitment to his craft, seen in daring performances like Bramayugam, stands as proof that even legends are forged in fire—and sometimes, reborn in the ashes of failure.