For the first time in the history, the life and times of Jesus Christ will be depicted in a three-dimensional film, thanks to a group of Malayalis. A 40-member crew will commence their journey on Sunday to Isreal for the shooting of the 150-minute-long film.
“The `35-crore budget movie will be simultaneously released in 5,000 cinemas across the world. The project will be completed in a year,” said Johnny Sagarika, the producer of hit Malayalam movies such as Niram and Body Guard.
He is assisted by the Catholic Church of Kerala in this endeavour.
Moreover, the film, ‘Muppathu Vellikkasu’ (The 30 silver coins) in reference to the amount that betrayed the son of god, will be made in nine Indian languages, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bengali and Oriya in addition to the base, Malayalam. It will also have English and other European language versions, said Johny.
The ambitious project, written and directed by film designer Kurian Varnasala, will have a total cast of 5,000 men and women. Among the major 75 characters, Jeremy Jairus, a 23-year-old Dubai-based Malayali, will play Jesus.
Raghvan, the yesteryears’ star, will don the role of one of the twelve disciples of Christ. There would be at least 350 characters with minimum one dialogue.
13 camera units from Bollywood will capture it into 3D while many veteran artists from the local industry, including Lalu Alex, Sai Kumar, makeup man Pattanam Rasheed, art director RK and costumer Palani will be part of the project.