Director Alphonse Putharen made his debut in Tamil with Neram (a Tamil-Malayalam bilingual with Nivin Pauly and Nazriya Nazim in the lead roles), which received great response from the critics and audiences alike. His second directorial venture, Premam, which was a straight Malayalam film, transcended borders and was lauded for its brilliant making and realistic content.
At a time when many big-budget Tamil films are struggling to hold theatres for a month, Premam ran for a record 200 days in Chennai. A lot was riding on Alphonse’s next film. Soon, he came up with an announcement saying that the film will be a straight Tamil film and put out a casting call for young actors and actresses, who can perform on screen along with knowledge in Carnatic music as well.
Sources close to the team reveal that the film, which was planned as a Tamil movie, is now being made as a Tamil-Malayalam bilingual. “The pre-production process of this untitled movie is underway and Alphonse has plans of retaining the technical team who worked in Neram and Premam. Composer Rajesh Murugesan and cinematographer Anand C Chandran are expected to be part of the technical crew,” a source adds.
When Alphonse announced his next project, it was widely speculated that he had roped in STR. Even though talks were initiated with the AAA hero, it looks like the film didn’t materialise. Coming to the cast of this yet-to-be-titled movie, speculations are rife that Alphonse has zeroed in on Siddharth and Kalidas Jayaram for the lead roles. A little birdie tells us that the movie is about music. However, an official announcement regarding the cast and crew is yet to arrive.
In the meantime, it was also rumoured that Alphonse would once again join hands with Nivin Pauly, who acted in both the movies of the filmmaker. It looks like the duo will take some time to collaborate once again.
