Social causes top filmmaker Priyadarshan‘s priority list and his next three movie projects — “Kanchivaram” part two, a movie on HIV-AIDS and a film about girl child — will highlight serious issues.
One of the most successful directors down south, Priyadarshan has also made many commercial Hindi entertainers, but now he has turned his attention to meaningful movies.
In a chat with IANS, while on a trip to his hometown here, the 54-year-old said: “I will be doing a second part of the 2009 national award winning best film ‘Kanchivaram‘ (Tamil), then I have a major project which will go live very soon on HIV-AIDS and a third one, which would be focussing on the girl child.”
Priyadarshan, who moved away from Thiruvananthapuram and settled in Chennai a long time back, is spending a lot of time here in his new role as chairman of the state-owned Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.
“The film on HIV-AIDS would be shot mostly in Mumbai and it will be ready for release next year. I have a lot of hopes from this film because this issue has to be seriously looked into by the authorities,” said Priyadarshan.
In a hugely successful career spanning close to three decades, the filmmaker churned out 85 films in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. He said when he entered the hugely polarised Bollywood, many did not like the idea of remakes.
“Look at what is happening there now. I wish to know what is wrong in doing a remake. My first Malayalam film (‘Arabiyum Ottakavum P. Madhavan Nairum’) in nine years will hit the screens next month and mind you Ajay Devgn has already given me the green signal that he would like a Hindi remake of the movie,” said Priyadarshan.
Incidentally, the dream team of Priyadarshan and superstar Mohanlal that immortalised the Malayalam film industry with blockbusters like “Boeing Boeing“, “Chithram“, “Vandanam“, “Kilukkam” and “Thalavattam” just completed their latest Malayalam comedy “Arabiyum Ottakavum P. Madhavan Nairum”, which will be released in October.
Is he worried about the response to their new film?
“Yes, I am a bit tense about what sort of response my new Malayalam film will get because expectations are huge when I team up with Mohanlal. It is a film where one can expect to keep on laughing from start to finish,” said Priyadarshan.
And on his next Bollywood film, “Tezz“, slated for a Jan 26 release, he said it is going to be his first major thriller.
“I have huge expectations from the film because no compromises of any sort has been made and it has been one film where the investment in ‘efforts’ is also huge,” said the versatile film maker.
While talking about the film on the girl child which will go on the floors next year, he turned emotional.
“For many years, this has been held close to my heart simply because of the topic. I have been speaking to top experts in this area for some time now and this has evoked passion and excitement in myself, which I feel is needed for the film,” said Priyadarshan.
He said his next Malayalam film is going to be a remake of a yesteryear Malayalam classic.
“Please don’t ask me which film it is going to be because courtesy demands that I will first have to speak to the people behind that film,” said Priyadarshan.
–By Sanu George (Sanu George can be contacted at [email protected])
