Santhy Balachandran, who made her debut with the Malayalam film Tharangam, is now busy working in Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu. The film is based on the short story Maoist penned by S Hareesh. It is directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery with Anthony Varghese playing the male lead. According to reports, the film will hit the marquee in October and the release date will be out soon. Phars Films has procured the distribution rights of this film, confirm sources.

Jallikattu is bankrolled by Thomas Panicker under his banner. S Hareesh in association with R Jayakumar has penned the screenplay for this venture. The technical crew of this film comprises Girish Gangadharan for cinematography and Deepu Joseph for editing. Vinayakan and Sabumon Abdusamad are also part of the cast. Lijo said in an earlier interview to TNM that the film has a ‘man and animal’ story.

Santhy Balachandran also has the sports drama Aaha and a film called Paapam Cheyathavar Kalleriyatte directed by Shambu Purushottaman in her kitty. 

An anthropologist, Santhy forayed into the film industry as she felt that both have a strong connection. In an interview to The New Indian Express, she said, “Both anthropology and acting are about being in other people’s shoes—understanding them, their perspectives, their logic, and figuring out their inner voice. The subjects I’ve studied expanded my horizons.”

Before making her debut in the film industry, Santhy was a stage artiste and played pivotal roles in stage dramas. This experience fetched her the role in Tharangam, she recalls. Tharangam, directed by Dominic Arun, had Tovino Thomas and Neha Iyer playing the lead pair.

Santhy is also part of the play A very normal family, directed by Roshan Mathew, who is also an actor. In an earlier interview to TNM, Santhy said that she has been co-writing a film script when the play happened. Santhy has also played the female lead in the film Randuper.

(Content provided by Digital Native)