Arjun Lal – Child artist in Mohanlal starrer ‘Thanmathra’

Arjun Lal is a film actor associated with Malayalam cinema. He is best known for playing Mohanlal’s son in 2006 movie, ‘Thanmathra’. For his outstanding performance in Blessy’s film, Arjun received Kerala state special jury award. Later he made his hero debut with Asha Black in 2014. Dear Friend (2022) co-starring Tovino Thomas is his noted work. He also wrote the story of the film.

Arjun Lal got Thanmathra through auditions

Though he was born into a Christian family, his father Lalson Joseph gave him the name Arjun, because he likes this name a lot. Along with Arjun, his father’s name was added. Till 5^th grade, he studied at Koratti of Thrissur district. Later he moved to Dubai, where he continued his studies. Arjun comes from a non-filmy background, and his entry to films was unexpected. He attended the audition of the movie soon after the completion of his schooling. He even took admission in an engineering college for higher studies.

He knew a cameraman of the movie and that’s how he came to know about the auditions. He was in Dubai while doing auditions. As he was in Dubai, he attended auditions. His experience in dance forms helped him in bagging the role. He learnt classical dance for 1 year and Kathak for 1.5 years. His mother and younger brother are also dancers.

His role as Mohanlal’s son in 2006 movie, ‘Thanmathra’ was well appreciated and he got special jury award at Kerala state awards too. Yet he decided to pursue his studies. In fact he received many film offers after the success of Thanmathra, yet he didn’t accept any.

He later completed MBA and worked in Bangalore for 2 years

He chose studies over career and he completed his studies. Though he took admission for engineering soon after schooling. As ‘Thanmatra’ happened, he couldn’t join college and lost one year. Parents also had opinion that he should finish graduation first. He moved back to hometown and completed graduation in psychology.

Then he moved to Bangalore and completed MBA. He worked in Bangalore for 2 years. He felt like it’s not his cup of tea, and it’s the right time to return to films. He was called to Kochi by director John Robinson, and after reading the script, he accepted Asha Black. He played the role of Rohit, a guitarist in this movie. Ishitha Chauhan played the female lead in the movie. However the movie received negative reviews and was a commercial failure.

He didn’t like the scripts offered to him later

Though he read a few scripts after Asha Black, he didn’t like any. He had already begun a business startup in Bangalore, but moved to Kochi in 2017 to pursue films. He wrote the script of Dear Friend, and narrated this script to Vineeth Kumar in 2018. The movie released in 2022 received rave reviews from critics. The film’s story was inspired by actor Arjun Lal’s experiences in Bangalore. He played one among the friends of Bangalore, and the movie is about ghosting.  

After doing Thanmatra, he was a part of a stage show done by Mohanlal in Australia. During Corona time, Mohanlal made him a surprise call, though they were not in contact for many years. Arjun was not active in films either. Arjun is married to his degree classmate Fasli. They dated for 8 years and got married in 2015. Fasli has completed her PhD studies and is a clinical psychologist.