Malayalam actor Nivin Pauly’s next film has been titled Thaaram, the actor announced on social media on Sunday.
The makers released the first look motion poster of the film.
“We have been working on the poster alone for six months,” said Vivek Ranjit, who will be debuting as the solo screenwriter in Thaaram. He has also written the film’s story.
The film will be directed by Vinay Govind, who has previously directed Malayalam films, including Kili Poyi (2013) and Kohinoor (2015). Thaaram marks his first collaboration with Nivin.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, Vivek, who has worked on subtitles for 160 Malayalam films, including Lucifer, Drishyam 2, and Ayyappanum Koshiyum, said: “I had written a film earlier, Kili Poyi, but it was along with my friends, Joseph [Kurian] and Vinay who is the director of this film. It was the first stoner comedy in India. All of us had studied Visual Communication together at Loyola College in Chennai. We were all working under director VK Prakash sir at different stages. Joseph later went into the advertising industry. Vinay and I were working on this film. The script underwent a lot of developments and evolved into what it is now. We had narrated it to Nivin in 2014 and since then we were in discussions.”
Vivek said that the film will be a romantic comedy which is a “commercial entertainer with romance and comedy, songs, and dance”.
“It is very contemporary and we will have to see how we work around the Covid situation. We don’t want to show people in masks, so something like 2019 or post-Covid scenario,” he said.
“This is kind of a film that is full of comedy, fun, and happiness in theatres, that is what we are hoping for. It is a family drama. We don’t want to mention scary or sad things, so Corona would not be mentioned. We are seeing a happy, post-Corona space,” Vinay told Silverscreen India.
While the film will be shot in Kochi in Kerala and Darjeeling in West Bengal, the film is set against the backdrop of an urban space in Kochi.
“The movie industry functions in Kochi in Malayalam. The film is not about the movie industry but about a person who works in the movie industry. He is an actor. It can be called as a family entertainer,” Vivek said.
Vinay said that the film will go on floors later this year. “Keeping in mind Covid-19, also since most of the scenes need artists to shoot together, we are figuring about that as well,” he said.
Talking about the film’s dialogues, Vivek said: “After the casting, we will be working on the final [dialogue] draft before the shooting begins.”
Vivek said that he started to write for Thaaram and since it “took a long time to happen”, he continued to work on subtitles in Malayalam films.
“In 2015, I took my writing skills to use and it was the right time when Malayalam cinema was opening up and people were interested in our films. At the same time, I was also making more drafts to make the film better,” he said.
He said that the film will require a “big star cast” and announcements will follow soon and added that the pre-production will soon start. He said that the film will go on floors after Nivin wraps up his other work commitments.
Talking about Nivin’s casting, Vinay said, “This is kind of a genre Nivin is expected to do more. It was a long process. When he began to shoot for Premam, we pitched the idea of the film to him. He later rose to a different level of stardom and so we also looked into the script to see how it suits his stardom and fanbase,” Vinay said.
Extremely excited to present my first film as a solo screenwriter, #Thaaram, with the dearest of my friends- the director, my best friend @vinay_govind our hero, the fantastic actor & entertainer @NivinOfficial cinematographer #PradeeshVarma and music composer @rahulrajt. pic.twitter.com/st78T4iziL
— Vivek Ranjit (@vivekranjit) April 4, 2021
The filmmakers said that the lockdown proved to be fruitful for them to work on the script.
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“During lockdown, we had a lot of time to sit and discuss in details and fix the shortcomings. We finally arrived at a good script and corona was a blessing for us. Vinay and I have been working together on this film. He is sharing additional screenplay credits as well,” Vivek said.
“We worked with ease since we know each other for a long and outside the cinema also. We meet every day and we don’t have creative differences and we like same genre of films,” Vinay said.
The director said that there will be known faces from the Malayalam industry, probably from Tamil also. “We are in process of the casting and not finalised it. By end of April, we will announce the female actor for the lead role,” he said.
The film’s technical crew consists of Pradeesh M Varma as the cinematographer, Rahul Raj as the music composer, and Arju Benn on the edit. The lyrics will be written by Manu Manjith and Harinarayanan BK.