Prithviraj Sukumaran, the actor, director and producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, will be directing and playing the lead role in an upcoming Hindi web series.
Yoodle Films, which is producing the project, made the announcement on social media on Tuesday. The production company said the web series is “inspired by the riveting life story of India’s Biscuit King, Rajan Pillai.”
Rajan Pillai was born in 1947, in Kerala. The popular businessman, who set up his base in Singapore in the 70s, later became one of the shareholders of Britannia Industries. However, in March 1993, Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department charged him with multiple counts of breach of trust and fraud. Just before receiving a 14-year prison term, he fled to India in 1995 and died in police custody after being denied medical attention.
According to a Pinkvilla report, Prithviraj, speaking about playing Pillai in the upcoming web series, said, “The existence of light and darkness in human lives has always engaged me as an actor and director and this story has it all: ambition, success, a jet setting lifestyle and then a hubris-induced fall that took a man from the zenith of corporate power to the depravity of a prison cell. All this at the age of 47. Even though he passed away in 1995, his story serves as a relevant example of how the effects of success and power blur the line of morality. It will be very interesting to discover what made this charismatic personality tick and to relive his intriguing, complex life.”
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Meanwhile, Prithviraj, who was last seen in a cameo role in Star, has a bunch of other projects in the pipeline, including Kaduva, Bro Daddy, Vilayath Buddha, and Lucifer’s sequel, Empuraan, which is expected to go on floors by mid-2022.
Earlier, the actor-filmmaker had revealed that there are discussions on remaking his directorial debut, Lucifer, as an eight-episode miniseries in Hindi.