Actor Mohanlal unveiled the teaser from the much-anticipated magnum opus Marakkar: Arabikkadalinte Simham on Wednesday, November 24. Directed by Priyadarshan, the big-budget period drama is set to release on December 2. The teaser gives a brief glimpse at the visual spectacle the movie promises. It features shots of battle sequences. Marakkar stars actor Mohanlal in the lead. It was initially slated for release in March but had to be postponed multiple times in view of the pandemic.
Bankrolled by Antony Perumbavoor, the star cast includes actors Suniel Shetty, Keerthy Suresh, Manju Warrier, Kalyani Priyadarshan and Siddique in the lead roles. It is set to be released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. The makers of the film locked an OTT release for the film. However, they decided to go ahead with a theatrical release to support the Malayalam film industry after the Kerala government intervened.
Kerala’s Minister for Culture Saji Cherian announced on November 11 that the decision to opt for theatrical release was arrived at after holding a meeting with representatives from the film producers’ association and producer Antony Perumbavoor. “The expense incurred for the movie prompted producer Antony Perumbavoor to announce that the movie will be released on OTT. But considering how it would affect workers of the Malayalam film industry and theatre associations, he has agreed to release the film in theatres,” he said.
Earlier, the makers of Marakkar, which bagged National Award in 2019, announced direct-OTT-release for the period drama as they were unable to come to a consensus with theatres’ associations. Marakkar: Arabikkadalinte Simham is produced by Antony’s Perumbavoor’s Aashirvad Cinemas, Santhosh T Kuruvilla’s Confident Group and CJ Roy’s Moonshot Entertainment.
Watch the teaser of Marakkar here:
Speaking about the release of the film in an interview with The News Minute, director Priyadarshan had said, "With such huge stakes involved, we’re concerned about our product which we painstakingly built, but we are in no hurry to release the film. We’ll take a call when the world returns to normalcy, when people are in a position to enjoy things the way they used to earlier. We’re looking forward to a release in December or even early next year.”