Operation Java, the Malayalam thriller film that released in theatres in February, will be remade in Hindi, the film’s director Tharun Moorthy told Silverscreen India.
“The Hindi remake rights have been sold recently. The cast and crew have not been decided yet,” Tharun said.
Operation Java features Balu Varghese, Lukman, Vinayakan, Shine Tom Chacko, Irshad, Alexander Prasanth and Binu Pappu in pivotal roles. The story revolves around two unemployed B.Tech graduates Anthony George (Balu Varghese) and Vinaya Dasan (Lukman) who join the Kerala cyber cell as interns to help crack down a series of cyber crimes such as morphing, piracy, extortion and phishing.
“The discussion is still in the early stages and I am open to directing the film if given an opportunity. The emotions and the story narrated in the film are ubiquitous and that makes the story relevant to the audience beyond language and culture barrier,” Tharun said.
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After running successfully for 75 days in the theatres, Operation Java is expected to release on the Zee5 streaming platform and Zee Keralam television.
Speaking about the genesis of the film’s idea, Tharun said that he had initially decided to make a film based on cyber crime. Soon, he chanced upon hit Malayalam film Premam‘s censor copy leak case and took inspiration from the two youngsters who solved the case in reality.
“We spent a lot of time at the cyber cell observing the activities, nature of cases and how it is being handled. We also spoke to various officials across the country to ensure authenticity in the film’s execution,” he said.
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While one part of the film delves into phishing and money extortion, the sequence is set at the backdrop of a village in Tamil Nadu that is involved in such criminal activities.
“I derived the idea from incidents that took place in Jharkhand’s Jamatara, which is known as India’s phishing capital. We had planned to shoot this portion in northern India but due to some constraints we shot in Tamil Nadu. Also, the audience were easily able to connect with the idea,” Tharun said.
The film was shot in Kochi and Tamil Nadu’s Salem and Coimbatore in a 42-day schedule. According to Tharun, the cyber cell shown in the film was a recreation of the cyber cell in Ernakulam.
“While many films have shown cyber cell as a high tech space, we wanted to create a set which exactly resembles our reference point as retaining the authenticity was our ultimate aim,” Tharun said.
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Operation Java‘s technical crew consists of music composer Jakes Bejoy, and Nishad Yusuf as the editor. Cinematographer Faiz Siddik and Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar of Sound Factor handled the sound department. The film was produced by V Cinemas International.