Vishnu Agasthya – The new stylist villain of Malayalam cinema

Vishnu Agasthya is an upcoming actor of Mollywood, best known for negative roles. He is known for RDX: Robert Dony Xavier (2023), O. Baby (2023), Aayirathonnu Nunakal (2022), Rifle Club (2024) and Average Ambili (2021). This stylist villain of Mollywood is gaining a lot of attention in the recent times. He has also acted in a few short films and web series.

Vishnu Agasthya worked in a private TV channel before turning an actor

Vishnu hails from Agasthyakode near Anchal of Kollam district. He coined his screen name by taking ‘Agasthya’ from his native village, where he was born and brought up. His father Vijayan worked in Indian Army. Mother’s name is Geeta. His younger brother Shanmu is working in the office of an infopark of an American company.

Vishnu’s schooling was done at different schools. After completing his BBA course, he worked in a private TV channel for a while before joining film industry. Though he has never appeared on stage for any kind of performance, while he was working in the TV channel, acting dreams blossomed. So he quit the job and joined ActLab. He attended workshops too.

During his days in ActLab, he got a friend Amal Thambi, with whom he did his first short film, Anatomy of a Kamakan, in which he played different types of male lovers. It’s his first released work. Aalorukkam was his first big screen release. But he came to limelight for the first time after he was featured in the TV series, Insomnia Nights.

Insomnia Nights gave Vishnu Agasthya the first recognition

He played the lead role in the series. He enacted a hero going through depression because of the setbacks of life. Though his role was well appreciated, he had it to wait long to get a call from Malayalam cinema. But unlike the hero of the series, he always remained positive. Even when negative thoughts affected him he used to meet his friends and cheer up.

O. Baby gave him the recognition he was waiting for

He acted in Aalorukkam, Maradona, Ira, Kuprasidha Payyan, Freedom Fight and many more. But his roles went unnoticed. It was during these days when Ranjith Pramod offered him the role of Stanley, which gave him major breakthrough. His negative role as Paulson in RDX and also Godjo Lonappan in Rifle Club got noticed. After that, he got a handful offers of some well-known directors of the industry.

His role in RDX was also noticed

Initially the director of RDX wanted to cast some North Indian actor for the powerful negative role of Paulson. But luck favoured Vishnu Agasthya and he was chosen. The scene where he is breaking the head of Peppe’s character using a flower pot was so powerful that this single scene established his career as a powerful villain in Malayalam cinema.

When he went to meet RDX‘s director for an audition, he had grown a beard. He felt like the director wants a slim person. So before he met the director Nahas Hidayath for the second time, he reduced 6 kgs. The director was impressed by his eye expressions which gave Vishnu more hopes. After 2 days he got a confirmation from the film producers, and for this role he reduced weight from 76 kg to 62 kg. He appeared in two looks in the movie – with and without beard, to show two timelines.

Vishnu Agasthya – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Ever since he did the TV series, Insomnia Nights he is mostly getting toxic roles and negative shaded characters. Aayirathonnu Nunakal was an exception.

2. He appeared in Sangarsha Ghadana which was premiered at the International Film Festival of Kerala. His role was well appreciated.