Notable fight scene with Mohanlal in Pulimurugan, death of TTE Vinod is a loss to Malayalam films

KOCHI: The death of TTE Vinod has caused a great pain to the filmmakers as well. Vinod was an artist who loved acting along with his job in the Indian railways. He was known as 'Malayalam cinema's own TTE' among the filmmakers. He was called Kannan by many. He was interested in acting since his school days and he was a classmate of director Ashiq Abu.

His film career was through Ashiq Abu’s Gangster with Mammootty. He was the leader of a main goonda team of Mammootty. He later acted in many films like Manglish, How Old Are You, Achchadin, Rajamma@Yahoo, Peruchazhi, Mr Fraud, Cousins, Vikramadityan, Oppam and Pulimurugan.

His scene with Mohanlal in the fight scene in Pulimurugan was noticed. How beautiful was his difficult fight scene with Mohanlal arranged by Peter Hayne. Vinod's role as a politician in Nalla Nilavulla Rathri, directed by Murphy Devassi, earned him very positive reviews.

‘Vinod was one who maintained a good friendly relationship. When my father had to go to Kannur two months ago, Vinod took the ticket for me. He also bought food for my father. I was shocked on hearing the news on TV yesterday, said producer Sandra Thomas.

TTE Vinod was checking tickets and the accused, a differently abled migrant worker, identified as Rajanikanth didn’t have a ticket and a dispute broke out between the two in the name of it. The incident happened at Velappaya between Mulangunnathukavu and Wadakkanchery railway stations. The TTE was standing near the door of S 11 coach. The FIR said the accused pushed Vinod from the running train.

Eyewitness Ismail told a media that Rajinikanth was drunk and entered into a dispute with Vinod. When Vinod asked for the ticket, the accused hurled abuses at him. When the accused kept on hurling abuses, the TTE contacted the Palakkad railway station. When he realized that the TTE was talking about him on the phone, he pushed Vinod from the train. Ismail said that the accused threatened to attack him if he disclosed the information.

The incident happened on the Ernakulam-Patna Express around 8 pm last night. Vinod was murdered near Velappaya overbridge between Thrissur and Vadakancherry.