Debutant director Jofin T Chacko announced on Monday that Mammootty and Manju Warrier starrer The Priest will be hitting the big screens on March 11. Jofin T Chacko took to Instagram to share a poster featuring Mollywood superstar Mammootty and announced the release date.

The announcement from the makers of The Priest came a few hours after the Kerala government announced extension of working timings for theatres across the state. Earlier, many filmmakers raised concerns over not being able to run four shows in theatres. The Kerala government has now permitted theatres in the states to run night shows.

The movie was initially slated for release on March 5. The producers of The Priest decided to postpone its release since they were not allowed to run the evening shows, which is mostly preferred by family audiences. While sharing the news on Facebook a week ago, filmmaker Jofin explained the reason behind postponement of the release date, citing that they would lose out on international audiences since theatres in other parts of the world like Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Oman aren’t functional.

Jofin also explained that although the crew had finished 80% of the shooting, the production had to be stalled due to the pandemic, which caused delay in the post-production schedule. The production resumed almost after a gap of eight months.

Mammootty will be essaying the role of a former priest who develops a keen interest in crime investigations. Apart from Mammootty, the film also features Nikhila Vimal, Saniya Iyappan and Manju Warrier in pivotal roles. The Priest is produced by Anto Joseph and B Unni Krishnan under the banners of Anto Joseph Film Company and RD Illuminations. The writing for the venture was also handled by director Jofin. Akhil George is taking care of cinematography, while Shyam Menon and Deepu Pradeep are in charge of screenplay. The Priest has editing by Muhammad and music by Rahul Raj.