Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, Malayalam film industry’s latest jewel in the crown, is a celebration of varied technical talents, all pooling in their best work to light up a rare superhero plot that has taken the industry by storm. Director Dominic Arun, cinematographer Nimish Ravi, music director Jakes Bejoy, editor Chaman Chakko and others have come together to lift a movie made on a budget of ₹30 crore to one of the biggest successes in Malayalam this year.
Excerpts from an interview with director Dominic Arun:
Hello, the box failure of your directorial debut Tharangam may have dampened your spirits a bit but what a comeback. Congratulations! So, what clicked this time around?
I think it was the prep. We started on the project in 2022 and what began as a small attempt became this project which will now see a series of 5 films being made on the subject. Chandra is just chapter 1.
When did the turn around happen? Was it at the scripting stage?
The turnaround was when we discovered Neeli (Kalliyankattu Neeli, a malevolent supernatural spirit who appears in Kerala folk songs) as the central theme. We started the script as a vampire-superhero movie but when we hit up on the mythical character, the subject just took off.
Then Dulquer entered the scene as the producer.
Yes. Cinematographer Nimish had mentioned this to Dulquer when they were shooting together for the movie Kotha. So, when we finally approached him with the script, he saw the possibility of creating it on a much larger scale. We didn’t have to look back after that. Other producers who we had approached in the beginning were not convinced about the returns from this movie.
How surprised were you by Kalyani Priyadarshan’s effort, who has produced a career-defining performance in a lead role? Initially, I heard, the plan was to cast Parvathy Thiruvoth.
Kalyani owned the character. We had a few sittings where I explained her character in the movie. Once she got the hang of it, she just grew from strength to strength. Initially, I had a few actors in mind for the role including Kalyani. Dulquer felt Kalyani would be best bet, as the script evolved. I was also convinced Kalyani would pull it off and she did.
When is Lokah Chapter -2 going on floors? Will it have a bigger budget to ensure a larger scale of production? Already the viewers are spellbound by the technical quality of the film that was made on a relatively low budget for a superhero movie.
If all goes well, we’ll start shooting for it next year. Yes, we’ll have a bigger budget to play with. We are just happy that the audiences across the country have liked it.
I heard music director Jakes Bejoy even created an entirely new language called Mozhika in association with lyricist Harinarayanan for the movie. Apparently, it’s a blend of words from various tribal dialects mixed with Malayalam.
That’s true. That’s the kind of effort all the technicians have taken for this movie. Every technician was given complete freedom to do his/her craft. We wanted all of them to do their best and come up with some unique outcomes.
The movie almost came up like a bolt from the blue. There wasn’t much pre-release publicity.
Yes, that was deliberate. We were clashing with Mohanlal’s movie for Onam and there was also the Fahad Faazil film. We thought it would be better not to create any hype around it and decided to rely on word-of-mouth publicity. To tell you the truth, when I started scripting the movie in 2021, I though it’ll end up as an independent film made with relatively unknown actors. Later, the script went through multiple changes and we made more than 20 drafts in total.
The cameos by Tovino Thomas and Dulquer Salmaan added to the thrills. Were they always part of the plan? DJ Shekhar’s version of the song ‘Kiliye kiliye’ also made an impact while presenting Kalyani.
Tovino was always part of the plan. Dulquer emerged as the script evolved. I’m happy the song made an impact. I’ve always been a fan of director Priyadarshan. This song picturisation was my tribute to Vandanam, one of my favourite movies of Priyadarshan.
