Mohanlal was in Thiruvananthapuram, shooting for 'Hello' close to Nithin Bhadran’s house. Nithin called up his friend Sandeep Robinson and said, “Let’s ask Lalettan to act in our docu-fiction.” Sandeep thought he was joking. The two final year mass communication students went to the location and watched the superstar in action. It was 25 days before Liju the makeup man noticed them and took them to Mohanlal.
The megastar listened to their story called School Time based on the traffic congestion in the city, asked if he could change a few words and shot for them straight away. Before parting, he wished them all the best and the duo believe that’s what finally got them an opening in Malayalam cinema. After years of rejection, they have become scriptwriters for Escape from Uganda with their friend Deepak Prabhakaran. The film releases on Friday.
“Three of us, then students of Mar Ivanios College, were passionate about cinema. This experience gave us the confidence that if we keep trying we could get even the biggest star to act for us,” says Sandeep. They were equally thrilled meeting Jagathy Sreekumar for the same docu-fiction. “When we went to his house, he asked us to wait. Five minutes later, he returned with three glasses of juice for us and gave us the sound byte.”
Years later they met Rajesh Nair, the director of Escape from Uganda, through a common friend Krishna Murali. Rajesh discussed the story — about a family trapped in Uganda, and discovered they were on the same wavelength.
“Deepak, Sandeep and I would sit at the Café Coffee Day tables and argue while writing the script, and sometimes walk away in anger. But the next day we would be together again,” says Nithin. The three had earlier worked with Gautam Mohan, associate director to Santhosh Sivan, on a script called Eniyum Paambum. “We read the script to Fahadh Faasil, Anoop Menon, Indrajith, Nivin Pauly and Unni Mukundan, who were all happy with the script and said they are in. Unfortunately the project did not take off. We hope it will soon.”
Their next assignment will be a thriller for Krishna Murali.
