Mohanlal, the Malayalam actor, announced his upcoming film titled 12th MAN on Twitter on Monday. The film will be directed by Jeethu Joseph and produced by Antony Perambavoor under the banner Aashirvad Cinemas.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, Jeethu said 12th MAN is a mystery film. “It is a story that unfolds in 24 hours and the film has only 14 characters overall. There will be no song sequences in the film,” the filmmaker added.
12th Man is written by KR Krishna Kumar. On choosing to direct Krishna Kumar’s script, Jeethu said he found the “suspense element” in the story interesting. “I had actually planned to start another film, but due to the Covid-19 restrictions, I had to postpone it. That’s when my friend Krishna came up with this storyline. It was then developed into a script.”
Adding that the film does not need a big crew and can be shot under pandemic-induced limitations, Jeethu noted that they are planning to shoot in Thodupuzha and 90% of the film will be shot in a single location. “The film will go on floors after the Kerala government provides permission for shooting,” the director added.
Jeethu and Mohanlal previously collaborated on Drishyam and its sequel Drishyam 2: The Resumption. Though the makers had planned for a theatrical release for Drishyam 2, they later opted for a direct-to-OTT release and the film was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on February 19, 2021.
Recommended
Meanwhile, in December 2019, the duo had announced another project, an action thriller titled Ram. The film, also featuring Trisha, Indrajith Sukumaran, Adil Hussain, Durga Krishnan and Sai Kumar, began filming in January 2020, but was later halted due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Following speculations that the film was shelved, in May 2020, Jeethu took to his social media page to clarify that the shoot would resume once the Covid-19 threat was down in the UK and Uzbekistan. Also mentioning that “Kerala is one of the few places in the world where Corona has been controlled effectively,” he wrote, “Considering this possibility, in the meantime, I am thinking of a film which has its shoot entirely in Kerala.”
It now appears that 12th MAN could be this new film.