'Bramayugam' Director Says No Superstar From Tamil Or Telugu Industry Could Have Played Mammootty's Role

With his recent film, 'Bramayugam' starring Malayalam actor Mammootty, director Rahul Sadasivan has accomplished something with a monochromatic movie that is doing decent business at the box office.

With his recent film, 'Bramayugam' starring Malayalam actor Mammootty, director Rahul Sadasivan has accomplished something with a monochromatic movie that is doing decent business at the box office.

New Delhi: With his most recent film, 'Bramayugam' (The Age of Madness), starring 72-year-old Malayalam actor Mammootty, also known as Mammukka, director Rahul Sadasivan has accomplished something with a monochromatic movie that is doing decent business at the box office. The film is still having a great run in theatres, having already made over ₹50 crore worldwide. 

Though Rahul Sadasivan acknowledges that he could have done an even better job with the film now, he is nevertheless overwhelmed by the reception to ‘Bramayugam’! The director of ‘Bhoothakaalam’ discusses ‘Bramayugam’, Mammootty in an interaction with Hindustan Times.

On ‘Bramayugam’ being a monochromatic film

When asked why he chose to direct ‘Bramayugam’ in black and white, he said, “I couldn’t see this film in any other format. When I had this idea, I felt that when I’m telling a period story and a horror one, it had to be black-and-white. I couldn’t have colour in this. Right from the beginning, I had this mind. When I pitched this idea to my HODs (heads of departments) and Mammootty sir, it was a monochrome film. My excitement was to shoot a black-and-white film.”

If the film has been influenced by other filmmakers or their style of filmmaking

“Many! I am a huge fan of (Akira) Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Spielberg and others. For me, the story has to be important – the format shouldn’t be. These are times when technology and the colour format are so advanced to portray a film on a wider canvas, but I wanted to break that and say that content is important – you’ll forget the format once you are immersed in the film, and that’s exactly what happened. When you start watching Bramayugam, you’ll forget in the first five minutes itself that you are watching a black-and-white film. That’s because you’re hooked onto the story. I knew that it would happen and it has been well accepted by the audience. I’m very happy about that.”

Why Only Mammootty was cast for the role of Koduman Potty

“I think Mammukka has acted in around 420 films now. It was always a dream to do a film with him and I was thinking about how I can make a different kind of film with him. How do I excite the audience with just one poster (launched on his birthday)? We know Mammootty sir is very glamorous, has got good features and looks young. I wanted to break that look and perception and be different from the other films. So how do I make him look like an old man? In Bramayugam, Koduman Potty looks and behaves a certain way. When I visualised it, only Mammootty sir could do this role. I wrote this character for him, never had a second thought.”

If a superstar from Tamil or Telugu cinema could have done this role. Right?

“Never (smiles)! Malayalam cinema gives us the creative liberty to explore new ideas. Though our industry is small, we are trying to come up with new ideas. Everyone is looking to Malayalam films now. There was a time when great filmmakers like Adoor Golapakrishnan or (AK) Lohithadas did these kinds of films and they were noticed then. Then we shifted to comedies and mass masala films, trying to copy other film industries. But now, there is a shift back to content-driven subjects. I’m truly blessed to be a part of this industry and it gives me more confidence that if I tell a story, there is an audience for it. And India is looking at what the Malayalam industry is doing. We want to try and push our boundaries and get other language audiences to look at our cinema as well. But there are limitations as it is a small industry.”

Off late, Malayalam film industry superstar Mammootty has been part of experimental films pursuing varied roles with top-notch performance.