With Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham, Priyadarshan will be testing waters in more ways than one. It is not just the most expensive Malayalam film ever made, but it uses the kind of computer graphics for scenes on water that has never been seen in Indian cinema before.
“Writing software for water is a most complicated thing and a film on Kunjali Marakkar cannot be made without having sequences of war on sea,” Priyadarshan told The Hindu . “The process will take a year to complete.”
He has entrusted the task to Anibrain, a Pune-based company. “My son, Siddharth, is in charge of the graphics for the film; he is the visual producer,” he says. “He had told me that it would be a time-consuming process. I didn't mind that. Very few companies, in countries like Austria and Hungary, have such software.”
Priyadarshan says he is happy with the way the film on about Marakkar, who waged a bold battle against the Portuguese invaders on sea in the 16th century, has shaped up so far.
Director Priyadarshan
“The success of a film like this would depend largely on the graphics,” he says. “If you don't get your graphics right, the film will look terrible. Which we have seen often in Indian cinema.”
That is mainly due to budget constraints. “When we watch a Hollywood film, the graphics would look so real that they don't seem like graphics at all, but they have the money for it, as theirs is a global market,” explains Priyadarshan. “For Marakkar , I was convinced that we needed to spend money for the graphics.”
He says he could not make the film earlier because of the money factor. “I had planned to make a film on Marakkar shortly after Kaalapani (1996) and had even discussed the project with scriptwriter T. Damodaran,” he says. “But I found that a film with such a big budget wasn't possible for at that time.”
The film, in which Mohanlal, plays the title role, will release early next year.
“And we are releasing it not just as a Malayalam film,” he says. “It will be have simultaneous releases in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. The Hindi version will be released later. I am also planning to release it Arab, as there is a big market in the Gulf countries.”
