The teaser of the new song ‘Maaran’ from Kudukku 2025, an upcoming Malayalam film, was released on Sunday. The song is sung by Sid Sriram and composed by debutant Bhoomee.
The film features SV Krishna Sankar and Durga Krishna in the lead, with actors Swasika, Ram Mohan, Shine Tom Chacko, Raghunath Paleri and Aju Varghese appearing in pivotal roles.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, the film’s director Bilahari says Kudukku 2025 is a “multi-genre futuristic story” set in 2025. The filmmaker adds that it is primarily a romantic crime drama based on the privacy concerns faced by two couples.
Explaining why the upcoming film has been set a few years in the future, Bilahari says, “The story follows a technology-based concern which tends to manipulate human beings. It is a personal problem, yet universal to all. But the situation depicted can be very unusual in the current time and that’s why we have set the story in the year 2025.”
Kudukku, the director explains, means trap. Adding that the film is purely his creative interpretation of the way things could be in the future, the filmmaker notes that he wrote the story in 20 days based on an idea that he had developed long back for a short film. “During the lockdown, I realised that what this particular story dealt with could be a major concern in the future and decided to make it as a feature film.”
On why he calls it a multi-genre film, the director says, “The film’s tail end is gripping and has thriller elements. Besides, there are also action sequences in the film. Since it is a technology-based plot, there are sci-fi elements as well, though they are simplified to make them easy for all types of audience to understand.”
The film was shot over 30 days in Thriprayar, Thrissur, Kochi, Erattupetta and Munnar in late 2020. “Shooting during the pandemic was quite challenging. Some locations we planned to shoot at were cordoned off due to Covid-19 cases, for instance.” To break the monotony of too many indoor scenes, Bilahari adds, the team shot a few song sequences in Mahagani Thottam and Munnar. “Our aim was to not let the audience feel that the film was shot during the lockdown.”
The team also opted for sync sound, which was handled by Romlin Malichery and Ousepachan Vazhayil, he tells us.
The film was edited by Kiran Das (Joji), while the camera was handled by Abhimanyu, a former associate to cinematographer S Kumar. “We are currently in the post-production stage, finalising the background score. We will decide on the film’s release and the platform (theatre or OTT) within two months based on the situation in the state,” says the director.
Debutant music composer Bhoomee has composed three songs for Kudukku 2025, including Maaran. In May, the team released the song ‘Theythaka’, composed by Manikandan Ayyappa. The latter has also scored the music for Kudukku 2025’s making video.
On roping in Krishna Sankar to play the lead role, Bilahari says he has known the actor for over four years. “He is very dedicated and took a lot of efforts for this film, including undergoing Kalaripayattu training. He also underwent physical training at the gym and even brought in changes to his facial appearance.”
Krishna Sankar and Bilahari, who have previously collaborated on the 2019 film Allu Ramendran, have co-produced Kudukku 2025, along with Deepthi Ram.
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Asked about the decision to produce the film, Bilahari says he decided to produce it himself to have the complete freedom to apply the experimental approach he wanted.
Elaborating on this experimental approach, the filmmaker says, “We had the story, and a ready and a clear vision of what we wanted. However, we did not have scenes written for the last few sequences. We improvised and developed scenes in the latter half based on the development of the characters. For instance, there was a combination scene for Krishna Sankar and Durga where I had asked them to plan the dialogues based on their understanding of the characters.”
“Likewise, in the second schedule, I asked my associate director Anand Sreenivasan to write the conversation for a particular scene. These two sets of dialogues have come out in a very interesting manner. Kudukku 2025 is a collective effort,” he adds.