Reports from the Malayalam film industry are that cinematographer-turned-director Santosh Sivan is all set to wield the megaphone yet again. The film is not titled yet, but it is going to be a thriller with Manju Warrier and Kalidas Jayaram playing central characters.
Actor-director Shoubin Shahir is reportedly playing a pivotal role. Aju Varghese, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Ramesh Pisharody will also be seen playing supporting roles in the film. Sources in the know say that the director will be bringing in top technicians from India and abroad for this project, which has not been titled yet. The shooting of this flick will begin on October 20th in Alappuzha.
Earlier, Santosh Sivan had planned to make a film on Kunjali Marakkar IV with Mammootty in the lead but this project has been dropped, we hear.
Meanwhile, the bilingual Chekka Chivantha Vaanam / Nawab, which had its cinematography done by Santosh Sivan, is all set for release on September 27th. The film has been directed by Mani Ratnam. This is the sixth film for which the two of them work together after Thalapathi, Roja, Iruvar, Dil Se and Raavanan.
The first film directed by Santosh is Story of Tiblu, a short film which won him the National Film Award for Best Short Fiction. He got more National Awards later for his feature films such as Halo (Best Children’s Film), The Terrorist (Best Feature Film in Tamil), Malli (Best Film on Environment Conservation). His last directorial was the Tamil movie Inam, which he had written, directed, and produced.
Apart from cinematography and direction Santosh Sivan was also seen as an actor in Lenin Rajendran’s film Makaramanju, opposite actor Karthika Nair. Santosh had donned the role of the celebrated artist Raja Ravi Varma in the film. He also made a special appearance in the Tamil film Thuppakki.
(Content provided by Digital Native)