Award-winning director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is busy promoting his upcoming film Chola, scheduled to hit the marquee on December 6. Recently, the director released a song from the film by presenting it as a stage show. The melodious song, written and composed by Basil CJ, is rendered by Harish Sivaramakrishnan and Sithara Krishnakumar on stage, both of them dressed in an old-fashioned way.

The stage show has actors Joju George, Nimisha Sajayan and her Akhil Vishwanath among the audience watching the song. Nimisha and Akhil are shown enjoying the show until she spots Joju among the audience and looks uneasy. Both Nimisha and Joju have won state awards for their performance in the film.

Chola was premiered at the Venice Film Festival under the Orizzonti (Horizons) section with its English title, Shadow of Water. The film garnered a positive response.

It has been written by KV Manikandan and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan with Joju George bankrolling it along with director-producer Karthik Subbaraj.

Sanal had recently been in a controversy when he withdrew his film from the 24th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala. The film has been selected under the Kaleidoscope section. He wrote on his Facebook: “Chola has been invited to the Kaleidoscope section in the 24th IFFK. I am much humbled by the invitation but I have sent a mail stating that I am withdrawing the film from the festival, protesting against its overtly biased and unprofessional way of the selection process in the Malayalam cinema today section.”

Sanal is now working on his next film Kayattam with Manju Warrier in the lead. She is also co-producing it along with Shaji Mathew and Aruna Mathew. Sanal has also penned the script and is in charge of the editing and the sound designing. The technical crew comprises Chandru Selvaraj for camerawork and Ratheesh Eettillam for editing.

(Content provided by Digtal Native)