Mohanlal had been in discussions with director Lijio Jose Pellissery for a new project. The actor officially announced it on Tuesday by sharing photos from their recent meet on social media. In a brief note, Mohanlal expressed his delight in collaborating with ‘one of the most exciting and immensely talented directors in Indian cinema’.
Former Kerala State Minister Shibu Baby John’s newly launched production house John & Mary Creative is backing the film along with Century Films and Max Lab. The same trio was supposed to produce another Mohanlal film with Athiran-fame Vivek as the director.
However, that project has been dropped due to creative differences. Mohanlal seems to have allotted those dates to Lijo. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the upcoming Mohanlal-Lijo film will be a big-scale period film with Mohanlal playing a wrestler’s role. It is also said that the makers are planning to start shooting the film in January in Rajasthan.
Mohanlal, whose recent release Monster opened to mixed response, has multiple other projects coming up. His next to hit screens will be the Shaji Kailas directorial Alone. He has also finished shooting for his directorial debut Barroz and the Netflix film Olavum Theeravum. He still has a few more portions remaining for Jeethu Joseph’s Ram. Lucifer’s second part Empuraan and Vrushabha, a multilingual with Kannada director Nanda Kishore are Mohanlal’s other upcoming projects.
On the other hand, Lijo Jose Pellissery has Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam with Mammootty set for festival run before it hits screens. It recently got picked in the Competition Section of this year’s International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK).
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the project will be a big-scale period film with Mohanlal as a wrestler