Amid reports that the release date of 'Charulatha' has been pushed to September 21, director Ponkumaran has revealed that the film will be certified only today (Tuesday) after which the release date will be finalised. “It may hit the screens on September 14 or a week later, but it’s releasing in the four southern languages on the same day,” he clarified.
When asked about similarities between the film and the original Thai flick 'Alone', Ponkumaran said, “About 70 per cent of the film has been changed. In 'Alone', the flashback portions were a little dry. Also, the film had a horror flavour throughout. I have included some light moments in the flashback scenes and the audience can gear up for some comedy by Aarthi. It will give audiences a break from the otherwise-serious narration.”
The movie was initially made as a bilingual in Tamil and Kannada, but now it has been decided to dub it in Telugu and Malayalam.
Compared to 'Alone', 'Charulatha' would feature the conjoined sisters, played by Priya Mani, for longer than the Thai flick. “In that movie, they used two actors to show the sisters in different age periods in 'Alone'. But here, the flashback sequences are set only four years before the present. So Priyamani will play the conjoined twins for 15 minutes on screen,” he said.
Ponkumaran says the project would have taken double the time without Priyamani’s dedicated work. “She would not complain even if we shot for a long time,” he said.
Ponkumaran said he was waiting for the release of 'Charulatha' before moving on to his next project.