Bineesh Bastin – South Indian baddie of ‘Theri’ fame

Bineesh Bastin is a south Indian actor who works in movies and television. He has done character roles in several Malayalam and Tamil films since 2005, and has joined Malayalam television in 2018. He initially played a few uncredited roles in Malayalam cinema, and struggled almost 8 years in the industry before he bagged the negative role of Chetan’s henchman in Vijay’s blockbuster Tamil film, Theri in 2016. After playing this famed role on screen, he got offers from major filmmakers as well as a few television roles. He mostly plays thug and henchman roles on screen.

Bineesh Bastin is a native of Ernakulum, Kerala. As he was interested in acting, he took modeling and body-building, as both are stepping stones to films. After studies, this ‘baddie’ from Kochi his film career in 2005 working as an extra. Mostly playing baddie on screen with less significance, his biggest moment came after the success of Atlee’s Theri, where he shared screen space with Vijay. By that time he has already done around 80 films, but without memorable roles. He used to a stuntman or a sidekick of villain those days, and Theri offered him the role of Chetan’s henchman – the first full-length villain character.

Bineesh Bastin – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Initially his decision to join films was not supported by his family, who asked him to try other better salaried jobs. Initially he got only minor roles too.

2. He lost his father at a younger age. He has three siblings.

3. Always sporting with his long beard, this style is inspired by the character of Spartan from Hollywood movie, ‘300’.

4. Apart from acting he is also interested in modeling.

5. Pandipada was his first film, where he got a small role, and since then he got offers only as thug. He was seen throughout the film without any dialogues.

6. He mostly played villain in Malayalam films including Angel John and Action Hero Biju and many more.

7. He mostly did thug roles for 11 years before Theri happened. Till then his character rarely had film dialogues. As a goon he appeared in around 80 films, and he was almost fed up with similar kind of roles.

8. He and his family members were already big fans of Vijay before Theri happened, and during his shooting days with Vijay he mustered enough courage to ask Vijay for autographs. Vijay signed 7 autographs of Bineesh’s close ones.

9. After Theri’s success, he rarely received ‘goon’ offers, and interestingly he got offers to do comic roles.

10. In October 2019, award winning Malayalam film director Anil Radhakrishna Menon refused to share stage with Bastin in a college function stating that the actor belongs to a lower caste. It resulted in wide protests and controversies. Bineesh sat on the floor of the stage in protest in a function where he was invited by college authorities. The director left the stage.

11. He was an unskilled labourer who did different jobs like fixing tiles before joining films.