The Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce has neither accepted nor rejected the title application of the upcoming Jayasurya-starrer Eesho, and it is still “under process,” the body’s president G Suresh Kumar told Silverscreen India.
Eesho, the Malayalam suspense thriller directed by Nadirshah, became embroiled in controversy after ex-MLA PC George claimed the film’s title hurts the religious sentiments of Christians and threatened to protest against its release.
While the word ‘Eesho’ is used to refer to Jesus in Malayalam, the film’s producer Arun Narayanan had earlier told Silverscreen India that the film has got nothing to do with Jesus. “It is not related to the Bible and is just the name of Jayasurya’s character. The film is purely a commercial thriller with no connection or reference to anything religious,” he had said.
Recently, the Kerala High Court dismissed a plea from a Christian organisation seeking to prevent the film from being certified under the Cinematograph Act.
Meanwhile, a recent report on Mathrubumi claimed that a new stumbling block had come the way of Eesho’s makers with the rejection of their title application by the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce. The report stated that the Chamber had rejected the application citing “certain mandates” were not followed by the producer, including non-renewal of his membership and the failure to register the title before announcing the film.
Denying that the application has been rejected, Suresh Kumar told Silverscreen India, “We have not yet rejected it. The producer has not completed certain formalities, so we are waiting for that. As of now, the application is under process.”
He further said, “Our rules are that the title has to be submitted before the shooting, but he has submitted it after filming. We will be taking up the matter in the next committee meeting and the executive committee will decide on it.”
When Silverscreen India contacted producer Arun Narayanan, he confirmed the same. He said, “The news channels were reporting that the application was rejected, but I did not get any official communication to that end from the Chamber. They recently informed us that they will have an executive committee meeting on August 30, at which time they will decide on the title application.”
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“When we started the project, we had not finalised the title. It was only in mid-May that we decided on it and at that time, the Chamber was not functioning due to the lockdown in Kerala. Once they opened in July, we submitted the application,” the producer added.
The producer further said that on August 8, the Chamber had asked him for an explanation regarding not registering the title before shooting and he had given them his reply on August 10. Addressing the allegations that he was not a member of the Chamber, the producer added, “If I was not a member, why would they demand an explanation?”
Eesho is a suspense thriller about what happens between a mystery man and an ATM security guard. While Jayasurya plays the former, actor Jaffer Idukki plays the guard. The film went on floors on January 1 and was wrapped by April 10. It is currently in the post-production stage.