It requires guts, expertise, patience, talent, knowledge, passion and, of course, heaps of currency to attempt a movie like `Pazhassi Raja.’ When historicals or period movies are considered as a total no-no in the Malayalam film industry, Sree Gokulam Movies’ idea to spend almost Rs 25 crore on a film could have gone either way. But fortune always favours the brave.
The film received an overwhelming response and it has emerged as one of the top grossers in Kerala’s box office history. Surely, the audience have not seen something so opulent like this on the Malayalam screen. Pazhassi Raja is a beautiful film with a soul in it and wellmarketed.
It has proved that Malayalam also can afford the luxury of producing movies with a Rs 20-plus crore budget.
Identifying markets beyond the boundaries of God’s Own Country and tapping overseas potential are two things that Sree Gokulam Movies executed very well, that resulted in the huge success of the movie. ``We expect that the film will break all existing collection records of Malayalam cinema within a 50-day run,’’ said Praveenkumar, executive producer of the film. ``We have already released the movie abroad and it is receiving overwhelming response in West Asia and the USA. The Tamil version of the movie will be released on Friday and we are hopeful of recovering the production cost within 50 days,’’ he says.
Pazhassi Raja’s success is also paving way for a new trend in Malayalam industry. It is reported that another movie `Marthanda Varma’ with Mammootty in the lead is on the cards. Its estimated budget, which will be released in both Tamil and Malayalam, is Rs 40 crore. Even with the cost-cutting measures suggested by the Producers Association in existence, actor Dileep’s home production has announced a new venture `Christian Brothers’ with Mohanlal, Dileep and Suresh Gopi in the lead roles.
The producers are also looking to rope in a top Tamil actor to play a leading role along with the Mollywood superstars. The action-comedy-entertainer is scripted by Uday Krishna and Siby K Thomas and directed by veteran director Joshy. The mother of all multi-starrers `Twenty 20’ which was released in 2008 was the initiator of the new trend. `Twenty 20’ was an entertainer. But Pazhassi Raja has taken a giant leap both technically and content-wise.
Technicians and filmmakers of Malayalam will now have to worry about the quality, technical perfection and totality of the film. A whopping budget alone will not produce a good movie.
The coming together of Hariharan, M T Vasudevan Nair, Oscar winner Resul Pookkutty, Mamootty and Sharath Kumar has been crucial in the overall success of Pazhassi.
The `Pazhassi effect’ should propel Mollywood to greater heights of cinematic glory.