KOCHI: A group of right wing workers have allegedly vandalized the set of multi-lingual movie 'Minnal Murali' at Kalady in Ernakulam district on Sunday night.
The Kerala state unit of Akhila Hindu Parishad (AHP) has claimed that a huge structure of a church in front of a temple had hurt religious sentiments.
"We had asked them not to set up such a structure in front of Mahadeva temple. We have also lodged several complaints. We have no habit of pleading. We decided to destruct it. We have to protect our self-respect," wrote Hari Palode, general secretary of AHP in his Facebook post. He also congratulated Rashtriya Bajrang Dal Ernakulam district president Ratheesh Malayattoor for their active participation in the demolition exercise.
The incident occurred on the banks of Periyar river at Kalady where the art directors had worked several days to erect a huge structure of a church. The film’s climax portions were supposed to be shot in this church. However, the Kalady schedule could not begin in time due to the lockdown. According to the film crew, they suffered a loss of about Rs 50 lakh.
Sophia Paul, the producer of ‘Minnal Murali’, took to her social media handle to express her disappointment. "Minnal Murali is an ambitious super hero project which is under production and we have filmed almost a major portion of the film. The film required almost 2 years of preproduction and planning owing to the scope and scale of the film. The remaining portion of the movie will be shot as soon as restrictions for movie production is lifted.
The next schedule is planned in Kalady and we have had constructed a massive set of a church where the climax was to be shot. Unfortunately due to the pandemic we couldn’t resume the shoot and was waiting for government guidance regarding the permissions to resume shoot. The set at Kalady was planned and built for one of our most important scene. All required permissions to build the set at the location was taken. Today’s incident is so unfortunate and a colossal loss", she said in her Facebook post.
‘Minnal Murali’ is being directed by Basil Joseph while Tovino Thomas is donning the lead role of a local superhero in the film. Tamil actor Guru Somasundaram is also an important role. Scripted by Arun Anirudhan and Justin Mathew, the film tells the story of a rustic youth who gets superhero powers after being struck by a lightning.
‘Minnal Murali’ is being made simultaneously in four languages – Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The film has Sameer Thahir as the cinematographer, Shaan Rahman as the composer and Hollywood-based Vlad Rimburg as the action choreographer.
FEFKA general secretary B Unnikrishnan has urged the government to take severe action against the perpetrators.