The first female superhero film of India, Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra, has collected ₹165 crore worldwide in 10 days of release. But ahead of its release on August 28, lead actor Kalyani Priyadarshan, producer Dulquer Salmaan, and the rest of the team weren’t so sure the film would make these numbers. In an interview with Post-cut Clarity, Kalyani revealed the last call Dulquer made to her before the film’s release.

Kalyani reveals Dulquer’s call to her before Lokah

Kalyani stated in the interview that the day before Lokah’s release, they didn’t know how it would do. She said, “He (Dulquer) called me and said, I don’t care if I lose money on this film. I’m just glad we made a good film. Because we were sure we made a good film, whether it worked for the audience or not was not in our hands. He was like, ‘Don’t even look at the numbers. Just know, I am really happy as a producer. I think this is why we got into cinema. Whatever is said and done, even if it’s a small audience, the film will find it’.”

Dulquer insisted Chandra’s story be told first

Lokah Chapter 1 is the first part of a five-part universe, and Dulquer was insistent on kicking it off with Chandra’s story despite having more ‘commercial’ characters. “Considering it’s a universe and they could have gone with anyone. It started off a small film and it was supposed to be just Chandra’s story. When Dulquer came in, he saw it as something bigger. He saw the potential. They were like, ‘So we got all these characters now, maybe we can start with someone else’. But he said no, this is Chandra’s story. Let’s start with her. This is the window into the rest of the world. Let’s not change parts just because we thought of something a little more commercial,” explained Kalyani.

Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra sees Kalyani play the titular character, a yakshi (vampire) who’s known by people in folklore as Neeli. The film, directed by Dominic Arun, also stars Naslen, Sandy, Arun Kurian, Chandu Salimkumar, Nishanth Sagar, Raghunath Paleri, Vijayaraghavan, Nithya Shri and Sarath Sabha. Tovino Thomas and Dulquer are seen in cameos, while Mammootty voiced the character of Moothon.