Sara’s, the upcoming Malayalam film starring actors Anna Ben and Sunny Wayne in the lead roles, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 5. Mammootty made the announcement on his social media page on Wednesday while also releasing one of the songs from the film.
The film marks the third directorial venture of Jude Anthany Joseph after Ohm Shanthi Oshaana (2014) and Oru Muthaassi Gadha (2016).
Speaking to Silverscreen India ahead of the film’s release, Jude recalls how it came about. “In March 2020, I’d put up a Facebook post asking aspiring writers to send me their stories/scripts/synopsis. I selected the best out of the lot to make a film. That’s how Sara’s happened. The story is written by Akshay Hareesh.”
Jude says the decision to release Sara’s directly on an OTT platform was made quite early. “Since we began preparing for the film during the lockdown, we designed and shot it in a way that’s apt for OTT streaming.”
According to the filmmaker, Anna Ben’s character in Sara’s is inspired by a scene from one of his previous films, Ohm Shanthi Oshaana. “In Ohm Shanthi Ohshana, there is a scene where Pooja Mathew (Nazriya) gets irritated when a small girl plays with her hairclip. It shows her aversion towards children. And for Sara’s, the characterization of the titular role played by Anna Ben was developed based on that scene.”
Jude adds that Sara’s explores the idea of women’s freedom and their right to make choices. “The story follows Sara’s life and her choice regarding motherhood. Sunny Wayne stars opposite Anna. His character Ivan has a voice in the film and in fact, he is supportive of Sara’s decisions and choices.”
The film also features IAS officer Prashant Nair, who is popularly known as ‘Collector Bro’ in Kerala, and Mallika Sukumaran as Ivan’s mother. “Benny P Nayarambalam, the renowned screenwriter and Anna’s father, plays her on-screen father. Vineeth Sreenivasan and Aju Varghese have cameo appearances in the film,” adds the director.
Jude is collaborating for the third time with music composer Shaan Rahman in Sara’s. “There are five songs in the film and one of the songs, Mele Vinpadavukal, was released on Wednesday. Mele Vinpadavukal shows Sara, who works as an associate director, going on a location recce for a project with Ivan where their relationship blossoms,” he says, adding that the song sequences were filmed in Vagamon while the rest of the film was shot in Kochi.
In an earlier interaction with Silverscreen India, Jude had said that Sara’s was primarily shot outdoors in November 2020 with a crew capped at 50 members.
Asked about his other project titled 2403 ft, which is inspired by the 2018 Kerala floods, Jude reveals that the film’s first schedule was completed in October 2019.
However, when they were about to start the set work in March 2020, the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed. “It is a film based on a natural calamity and can only be made with a large cast and crew of around 300-400 members working a day. We need special permission for the shooting and the entire team must be vaccinated before we resume production. If things get back to normalcy, we hope to reboot the project at the end of this year.”
