Paachil, the upcoming Malayalam web series, is a comedy thriller about a local neighbourhood in a Calicut village during the Covid-19 pandemic, its production designer Akhil K Raj told Silverscreen India.
The teaser of the series was launched by various film personalities, including filmmaker Pa Ranjith and actor Parvathy Thiruvothu, on Friday. The series, produced by Dravida Entertainments, is directed by Suresh Kuttyraman. Bineesh K has penned the story.
“Paachil means a desperate run in Malayalam,” Akhil said. “The series is set during the first Covid-19 lockdown, when people were not really prepared to deal with it. It is about a local neighbourhood’s desperation in the wake of that sudden lockdown announcement, due to which a group of people who give each other company over alcohol, make a choice to save what they have. The show follows the lives of the villagers and the situations they encounter.”
According to Akhil, the series features a large cast of characters with no defined leads. While Mithun Nalini, who has acted in films like Theevandi (2018) and Kali (2016), plays a pivotal role, most of the cast members hail from a theatre background, including Subin K, Choot Mohanan, LED Sreejith, and Kallu Kallyani.
“The first season is about revealing every character and reaching a point where there is a suspense in every storyline. We end the first season by opening up all the sub-plots and the second season is where the story develops into a drama,” Akhil added.
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The shooting of the first five episodes (about 13-15 minutes each), which comprise season one, was completed in January, in Calicut. The series has been shot by cinematographers Vishnu Pradeep and Rahul NB.
The team will start filming the second season after completing the post-production work of the first season.
Akhil revealed that the team plans to premiere the first episode of the series in October, with each subsequent episode releasing after a two-week gap. “We explored OTT options, but now plan to release it on our YouTube channel,” he added.