Kannada film-goers waiting for the release of Shikari this Friday are aware of the film's USP — Malayalam superstar Mammootty playing a double role and, to top things off, mouthing dialogues in Kannada.
This is Mammootty's first Kannada film, which comes 33 years after his first lead role in Devalokam in 1979.
The film, which has also been made in Malayalam, is directed by Abhay Simha who earlier won accolades for his film Gubbacchigalu.
( Shikari has already been released in Kerala.)
Mammootty plays an IT professional in the film, who stumbles upon a novel, Shikari . He falls in love with a character in the book, which is set in the pre-Independence period. The story, according to director Abhay, unspools in two time lines.
‘He fit the bill'
“After Gubbacchigalu , I started working on a subject which had been haunting me for a long time. It took six months to write the screenplay. My friend Sanju Surendran suggested I cast Mammootty in the lead role. I was a little apprehensive initially, but then decided to go with it,” says Abhay.
“I sent Mammootty an SMS that I have a story to tell. I promptly got his reply —‘send the script through mail'.”
Soon after, Abhay got a call from Mammootty, who said “I read the script, can you meet me?”
Thrilled
Abhay was thrilled when the superstar agreed to play the role. “Mammootty cooperated with me, regardless of the fact that I am still a budding film-maker. He never treated me like a fresher. We shot the film in various locations in and around Bangalore, Kochi, Melkote and Srirangapatna for 47 days.”
During an interaction with the media recently, Mammootty said he was drawn to the project because of the “sincerity of the director” and that working with young directors refreshed him.
Dubbed it himself
Another interesting thing about Shikari is that Mammootty dubbed his voice for the Kannada version of the film.
“Mammootty insisted on dubbing his voice to give authenticity to the character. We did the dubbing at a studio near his place in Kochi. He wrote Kannada dialogues in Malayalam and practised them to perfection,” says Abhay.
