The Jayasurya starrer Pretham released a couple of years ago was a big hit. No Jayasurya fan would be able to forget the star’s role as John Don Bosco that easily. So, when an announcement was made that Pretham 2 is on the way, fans are excited and elated. Releasing a poster of the film, Jayasurya wrote online: “John Don Bosco coming again.”
Pretham was written and directed by Ranjith Shankar and was produced jointly by him and the film’s lead star Jayasurya under the banner Dreams N Beyond. The film also has in its cast Aju Varghese, Sharaf U Dheen, Shruthi Ramachandran, Govind Padmasoorya and Hareesh Peradi. The technical crew of the film included Anand Madhusoodanan for music, Jithu Damodar for cinematography and V Saajan for editing.
Pretham was a massive hit upon its release in 2016. According to trade reports, the film grossed Rs. 2.67 crore within three days at the box office. It was screened in over 80 screens in Kerala well into its third week, which is not a mean achievement nowadays. The film grossed Rs.12.45 crore in 23 days at the Kerala box office and collected US$ 2,804 at UK box office while it was Rs.25.41 lakh (US$38,000) at the US box office in its third weekend.
Director Ranjith Shankar and Jayasurya are a formidable pair in the Malayalam film industry having worked together in quite a few films - Punyalan Agarbattis (2013), Su.. Su... Sudhi Vathmeekam (2015), Pretham (2016), Punyalan Private Limited (2017) . Their last outing together was Njan Marykutty, which hit the silver screens this year. The film was produced jointly by them under their banner Dreams N Beyond and is based on the issue of transgender identity. It had Jayasurya playing a transgender person for the first time in his career.
(Content provided by Digital Native)