Director Priyadarshan and superstar Mohanlal are all set to wow the Malayali audience with the historical drama on the legendary naval chief of Kerala, Kunjali Marakkar.
The makers claim that the movie titled Marakkar, Arabikadalinte Simham will be the most expensive film ever made in Malayalam cinema. The big budget movie will be jointly produced by Antony Perumbavoor, Confident group and Moonshot Entertainment.
Ace cinematographer-turned-director Santosh Sivan had earlier announced Kunjali Marakkar with Mammootty in the lead role. Priyadarshan had then told Onmanorama that if the makers of the film with Mammootty were proceeding with their project, he would back out of his version of the movie.
He also added that he would wait for a while to see whether Mammootty’s project takes off or else he would proceed with his. When the scribes asked the film-maker about this at the recent title launch, Priyadarshan said he had learned that the project with Mammootty is unlikely to happen this year and that anybody could make a movie on Kunjali Marakkar as it was a historical subject.
Priyadarshan said: “Those who worked behind Kaalapani will be working with the movie Marakkar as well. I called Santosh Sivan too. When I asked him about Kunjali Marakkar he said he hasn’t committed any movie this year.”
The veteran filmmaker told that the project was one of his long cherished dreams.
Priyadarshan added that he had already discussed the movie with the noted screen writer T. Damodaran years ago, and confirmed that some of Damodaran's ideas were also included in the script, which the director has co-written. “We have written the screenplay by fusing history with fiction. Ani, son of legendary filmmaker I.V. Sasi, will be a co-writer of the script in this movie,” said Priyadarshan.
Priyadarshan said that he couldn’t find many valid and consolidated historical documents about Kunjali Marakkar when he researched about the legendary naval chief of the Zamorin for the movie. A movie titled Kunjali Marakkar was released in 1967 with Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair essaying the role of Marakkar.
The director said he was worried about the budget when he made Kaalapani, and that the budget was a challenge for this movie, too. He confirmed that leading artists from Britain and also Bollywood, Tollywood will also be featured in the movie. The major scenes of Marakkar will be shot at sea. Marakkar, Arabikadalinte Simham is Priyadarshan’s 45th film as a director and the 25th movie which will be bankrolled by Aashirvad Cinemas.