The first Malayalam film to release in theatres of Kerala after it was reopened this year will be Vellam, starring Jayasurya. The film is expected to release on January 22. The trailer of Vellam was released online recently, presenting Jayasurya’s character as an ‘abnormal man’. It is also revealed that the film is based on a real life incident.
Last Wednesday, movie theatres in Kerala reopened after being shut down for 10 months following the outbreak of COVID-19. The first film to release was Master, the Tamil movie starring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi. Vijay has a huge fan following in Kerala and predictably, hundreds flocked to the theatres on release day, and waited for hours to get tickets. Only 50% occupancy has been allowed in theatres as part of the COVID-19 protocol.
There have been apprehensions on how many people would go film theatres once they reopened since Kerala still reports thousands of new cases of COVID-19 every day. Jayasurya’s film releasing next week will be a sort of precursor for the others.
The film is directed by Prajesh Sen, who made his directorial debut with another Jayasurya starrer Captain. Jayasurya won the state award for best actor for his performance in Captain.
Roby Varghese Raj is working the camera for Vellam with Bijibal composing the tunes and Bijith Bala roped in for editing. Vellam is produced by Manu P Nair and John Kudiyanmala under the banner Friendly Productions LLP. Samyuktha Menon plays the female lead in this entertainer.
A few weeks ago, when the team was shooting a scene with its lead star Jayasurya, the power tiller that he was operating had gone out of control dragging the actor along. The team was shooting a scene for the film which required Jayasurya to handle the power tiller. However, it suddenly lost control and went on high-speed dragging the actor along. The team immediately swung into action and saved Jayasurya from injuries. A video of this incident was released by the Vellam team which is going viral among the actor’s fans. Reports are that Jayasurya insisted on doing this scene without opting for a dupe as he wanted to retain originality.
(With inputs from Digital Native)
Watch: Trailer of Vellam