As if the existing lot of tearjerker TV soaps were not enough, here comes a sequel to the mother of all tearjerker movies in Malayalam- ‘Akashadoothu’. Dubbed as one of the most melodramatic movies in the history of Malayalam cinema, the 1993-movie directed by Sibi Malayil, will now have a sequel on the miniscreen. Titled ‘Akashadoothu’ itself, the shooting of the serial is already progressing in Thiruvananthapuram.
The movie had a heart-wrenching storyline revolving around Annie (played by Madhavi), her husband Johnny (Murali) and their four children. Johnny gets killed and the widowed Annie is left in the lurch when she learns that she has blood cancer. She is forced to give up her four children to different families before she breathes her last. The National Award-winning movie was written by Dennis Joseph.
The serial, which will go on air from next month on Surya TV, is directed by Aadithyan and produced by Renjith for Avantika Productions. Santhosh Echikkanam has penned the story, script and dialogues and Sanand has scored the music.
Aadithyan and Renjith have been working on the project for the last one year. “It is the first time that a film is getting a sequel on miniscreen. It has happened the other way round - the movie ‘Puthran’ was a sequel to the serial ‘Michaelinte Santhathikal’,” Renjith says.
It is a miniscreen debut for Aadithyan, who has directed the Tamil movie ‘Aarvam’. “Some three years back, wanting to bring something novel on the small screen, I had then thought about doing this sequel. I even bought the rights of the movie from the producers. But the project got delayed. However, I was destined to meet Renjith who also had a similar idea,” says Aadithyan.
About four years back, Renjith had thought about doing the sequel of the movie as a serial. “The audience, I mean the good audience, who had watched the movie in theatres are now sitting at home, hooked on to the television. The taste of the present day movie-goers is different and so making a filmy sequel would be risky. So, I decided to go for a serial sequel,” says Renjith.
The narrative of the serial revolves around the four children who are adopted into three different families. “They have all grown up now. They have not seen each other and Monu, the youngest one, doesn’t even know about his biological parents and siblings. He was just an infant when he was adopted. The story begins when this boy is told about his real family by his adopted parents and he decides to find his siblings,” says Renjith, who has produced five serials, which include ‘Sthree Oru Santhwanam’ and ‘Sree Guruvayoorappan’ and 10 films, which include ‘Chintamani Kolacase’, ‘Elsamma Enna Aankutty’ and ‘Makeup Man’.
Annie had given away her children because she didn’t want them to end up as orphans after her death. “The serial also discusses whether her wish has been fulfilled,” Aadithyan adds.
It was not easy to get the project going. Artists like Aranmula Ponnamma, Thikkurissi Sukumaran Nair and Subair who were part of the movie are no more. “In fact, we had met Aranmula Ponnamma while the project was hatching and she had given all the blessings for the work. The demise of Subair was a shock for all of us. It was not easy to work out a storyline around the movie. Many characters die in the movie itself and many artists who essayed important roles have passed away. So we could not arrive at a launching point for the story for quite a while. That is when we thought about bringing the children into the picture,” Renjith says.
The serial has Chippi, Renjith’s wife, playing the role of the eldest of the four siblings (Seena Antony had done the part in the movie). Other artists in the cast are Prem Prakash (who had produced and acted in the movie), Sukumari, KPAC Lalitha, Raghavan and Seema G Nair among others. Newcomer Vineeth is cast as Monu.
“We are very hopeful about the project, especially because the promo itself has invited so much response from the viewers,” Aadithyan says.