Suriya thanks Tovino Thomas for playing Victor in Scene

Suriya has put the spotlight on Scene’s Malayalam cameo. On Saturday he posted a 37-second clip, titled Inbaraj meets Victor, in which his detective comes face to face across prison bars with Tovino Thomas’s Victor, and thanked Tovino for doing the part.

“Dear Tovino, I can’t thank you enough for being our Victor,” Suriya wrote. “The love and generosity with which you came on board means more to me than words can express.” He went on to thank the Malayalam actors, technicians and creative minds who worked on the film, and called Scene a small love letter to Malayalam cinema.

The love letter line is not much of an exaggeration. Scene is the Tamil debut of Jithu Madhavan, who made Romancham and Aavesham, and he brought his Malayalam team with him: Sushin Shyam on music, Nazriya Nazim as the female lead, Naslen as the young killer at the centre of the case, and Lal in support. Tovino’s appearance makes it close to a full house. Our review singled out Naslen’s Eeswaran, and Suriya, who spends much of the film letting others outsmart his detective, seems just as happy to share the credit off screen.

The thank-you comes with the film well past the point of needing a push. Scene released on November 6 for Diwali and had already crossed Rs 116 crore in three days; the makers now put the worldwide gross at over Rs 205 crore after its first week, with Tamil trade reports placing it at about Rs 211 crore after eight days. It is Suriya’s third hit in a row, after Karuppu and Vishwanath and Sons.

Scene is produced by Jyotika and Suriya under 2D Entertainment and Zhagaram Studios. Anandraj also stars.