This series is tackling gender stereotypes

KOCHI:  Web series have found an audience among Malayalis recently. The introduction of new OTT platforms and Malayalam series has prompted aspiring and established filmmakers to develop content accordingly. ‘Ennum Varunna Dhoomakedhu’ (Everyday Meteor), a Malayalam web series directed by Thiruvananthapuram-based Vysakh Reetha has been officially selected for Seoul Webfest, the only web fest in Asia. Vysakh’s web series is one among the only two official selections from India.

The web series is written and produced by Krishand R K, who directed the web series ‘Utsaha Ithihasam’ and the movie ‘Vrithakrithiyilulla Chathuram’, which was featured in the IFFK 2019 Competition category. This is not the team’s first entry to the Seoul Webfest as ‘Utsaha Ithihasam’ had won the ‘Best Dramedy’ award in 2018. “I’m very excited. When we started the shooting, we had apprehensions if we could complete the project. We shot eight episodes and just completed the sound designing and other pending work by last Sunday. We won’t be able to fly to Seoul this year due to the pandemic,” says Vysakh.

The series deals with the struggles and discrimination faced by women in society and at the workplace. Nandini Gopalakrishnan and Stefy Maria Raju play the lead roles of roommates Roopshree and Anitha respectively. “Roopashree works as an assistant professor and Anitha is an assistant director. The web series humorously depict the women dealing their issues in a male-dominated society. We framed the story after hearing the experiences of our women crew members,” adds Vysakh.

The shoot began in May 2019. “We were looking for a project after ‘Vrithakrithiyilulla Chathuram’ and finally zeroed on this. However, we didn’t have enough budget to shoot it. However, our exceptional crew and passionate cast helped us to complete it,” he says.The team is in talks with a few OTT platforms to telecast the web series.

But Vysakh affirms that it will be only done after its premiere at the Seoul Webfest.
The same team behind ‘Vrithakrithiyilulla Chathuram’ worked on the web series. Vishnu Prabhakar cranked the camera, Azif Ismail has done the edits and Ajmal Hasbulla composed the soundtrack. Rahul Rajagopal, Sreenath Babu, Sreejith Babu, Mithun S Kumar, Manu Bhadran and Zhinz Shan are the other actors part of the web series.Vysakh says OTT platforms are largely beneficial for films and web series. “Our product gets a global audience and feedback is promptly received,” he adds.