In 2003, Narayanan was offered the lead role in the Academy Award winning German director Florian Gallenberger's film Shadows of Time. Narayanan played Ravi in the film. Shadows of Time was challenging for him, as the film set in Calcutta, was to be in Bengali language. Narayanan, being a Malayalee, had to take lessons in Bengali to convincingly portray the role.
