Director Jeethu Joseph, who delivered 2018’s first Malayalam blockbuster with Aadhi, is now busy with the post-production work of his next, a Bollywood project starring Rishi Kapoor and Emraan Hashmi in the lead roles. The film is a horror-thriller shot extensively in Mauritius and Mumbai.
“We wrapped up the film in around 40 days, that’s sooner than we thought. The title of the film or the release date hasn’t been fixed yet,” said Joseph who is currently in Kochi. The screenplay of the film – an official adaptation of a Spanish thriller, is written by Mumbai-based writer Gireesh Kohli – who has earlier worked in the film, Mom (2017) that got Sridevi a National Award.
The film is jointly produced by AZURE Entertainment and Viacom18 Motion Pictures. This is one of the five projects – spanning across different Indian languages – that Viacom18 has taken up this year.
Rishi Kapoor, according to reports, plays a police officer in the film which revolves around a murder.
In an interview with Silverscreen.in in January 2018, Joseph had revealed that a Hindi project had been in cards for a long time. “Ever since the success of Drishyam, I have been getting numerous offers from Bollywood. At one point, I met actress Deepika Padukone and came close to striking a deal with her. That project didn’t work out due to many reasons. In fact, my next project might be a small, humorous Hindi film, an official remake of a foreign film,” he said.
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Joseph’s Drishyam (2013), a crime-drama starring Mohanlal in the lead role, is one of the highest grossing Malayalam films. It film was later remade into four languages – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. The Hindi version, starring Ajay Devgn and released in 2015, was directed by Nishikant Kamat.
On the success of Drishyam, the director had said, “It set a very high standard, and all my subsequent films were mercilessly compared to it… But till date, I get messages from another section of the audience, especially from those settled abroad, that they loved the movie, and were able to relate to it.”