A few months back, we had reported that after Kumbalangi Nights, writer Syam Pushkaran and producer Dileesh Pothan will be collaborating once again with actor Fahadh Faasil for a project titled Thankam, to be helmed by Saheed Arafath.
Initially, the names of Fahadh, Joju George and Dileesh Pothan were announced along with the title poster. Now we learn that Aparna Balamurali will be once again sharing the screen with Fahadh after Maheshinte Prathikaram.
“Aparna plays one of the significant characters in the film aside from that of Fahadh, Joju, and Dileesh,” says a source close to the Thankam team.
The team had initially announced that the shoot was expected to begin by December last year. However, things didn’t exactly pan out the way they wanted to. They were then looking at a May start when the Covid-19 pandemic forced them to reconsider.
As of now, there is no clarity on the shoot plan as the script has Coimbatore and Mumbai as principal locations.
As for the possibility of filming in alternate locations, the source tells us, “That’s going to be a little difficult as the story happens mostly in these two locations and it will be a major challenge to tweak the script at this point. The team thinks it’s best not to make any immediate decisions now given how unpredictable the situation is.”
Syam and Dileesh are shepherding the project under their Working Class Hero banner in association with Fahadh’s home banner Fahadh Faasil and Friends.
Saheed had told us earlier that the film will be a crime drama and is different from Syam’s previous scripts.
Besides Thankam, Fahadh’s upcoming projects include a film of debutant Akhil Sathyan which he was slated to join when the pandemic hit.
Akhil is the brother of Varane Avashyamund director Anoop Sathyan.Fahadh recently completed filming Mahesh Narayanan’s second directorial feature Malik, which is slated for a theatrical release.
Meanwhile, Dileesh is set to return from Africa after shooting for Djibouti, in which he has a starring role.