Interview with the producer of the film Binoy Shankarath, who is based in the US.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: “Ennu Ninte Moideen” is an audacious Malayalam film, written and directed by R S Vimal, that is currently sweeping the box office in Kerala. It’s considered already one of the all-time great films to come out of the state. The film is releasing in select theaters in the US, on October 9, with English sub-titles.
Released in Kerala on September 18th, and starring Prithviraj Sukumaran and Parvathy, it crossed Rs. 3.26 crores within the first three days, with the help of positive reviews and word of mouth. Reportedly, the movie collected Rs. 19 crores from the Kerala box office alone, within 18 days.
The film is one of the first Malayalam films to wholeheartedly embrace social media marketing, and the windfall generated by the decision has been immense.
“I think we did a really effective job of advertising offline and driving traffic to our social media, and then using social media to amplify it,” said Ragy Thomas, one of the producers of the film based in the US, with whom The American Bazaar spoke.
“The story itself is unbelievable. The director, crew, actors, and actresses did a phenomenal job and everything just came together, so when the movie was released it exploded on social media. The company I run is one of the largest independent social media technology providers in the world, and we just stoked the fire,” Thomas continued.
The American Bazaar also spoke with producer Binoy Shankarath, based in the Washington, DC area, who was significantly involved in operational matters regarding filming, apart from numerous aspects of the process.
Shankarath — who emigrated from Trivandrum, India after graduating from the city’s College of Engineering — is normally a technical manager in the I.T. field and produced his first ever film with “Ennu Ninte Moideen.”
The following contains excerpts from the American Bazaar’s phone conversation with Shankarath:
What is the plot of “Ennu Ninte Moideen?”
It’s a true story that happened in the ’60s and ’70s in a place called Mukkam, which is in Kerala, the southernmost state of India. It’s a story about a predominantly Hindu family and a predominantly Muslim family. The Muslim family had a boy named Moideen and the Hindu family had a girl named Kanchanamala. They fell in love with each other but when the families found out they turned it into a difficult situation due to social and familial pressure.
Kanchanamala was shut away while Moideen became a political activist and they developed their own coded language to communicate. They basically had a language of love that only they could understand. She was under house arrest for more than 20 years.
The film is based on a true story, how faithful is it to the original tale?
There is a bit of dramatization but other than that we stick with the story.
This is the most expensive Malayalam film made by a debut director. What was the film’s budget?
The film’s budget was Rs. 11.5 crores.
As producer for the film, what were your responsibilities?
To be honest, I played a big role even at the production controller level. I worked with them, made sure everything was handled properly, there was people management, vendor management, and crisis management.
How long did it take to film the entirety of the production?
There were three schedules for this movie. We started back in August 2014 and ended in April/May this year. It took 112 days of filming.
Is the film commenting on the state of inter-religious politics in India?
Not really, but the social stigma is still there. There are still people who have problems with it in India. We aren’t making it the point of the movie, but it’s the truth in the story. We’re taking the truth of what happened and depicting it on the silver screen.
What prompted you to invest, especially considering that film productions can be risky business?
When I heard it was a true story it really attracted me and based on that I wanted to make sure this story was heard by many people. I felt that the story was touching and people ought to know about it. There is already a documentary out there made by the director of our film, and when we saw that we thought it was really good. But I wanted to do it on a big canvas, not in a small way. The typical Malayalam movie is filmed with a small budget and we wanted to do it right.
But between the actors, the crew, and the composers, we brought in the best in the industry and therefore removed much of the risk even with me being a first-time producer working with a first-time director.
What are your plans for the future? Do you plan to invest in further films?
If a good story comes along, definitely. Our goal is to produce a movie that can appeal to the masses. Hopefully it would have a good social cause behind it, too.
I always say, the hero is the story. The true, compelling story of this film is what pulled me into it.
How has the landscape of Malayalam cinema changed and evolved over the years?
Technically the industry has come a long way. The way thing are handled and multitasking have changed over the year. Technology is playing a much larger role in the Malayalam film industry that was not there before. They’ve started using a lot of computer graphics and digital color coding. Even the tone of actors’ skin is looked into now. The technicians are also looking at details that they want to translate on an international level, nowadays.