Exclusive! Vichithram is a crime mystery thriller that will also provide a horror experience: Achu Vijayan

The debutant filmmaker opens up about his film starring Shine Tom Chacko, Balu Varghese and Kani Kusruti

Poster of Vichithram and (right) Achu Vijayan

The posters and trailer of debutant director Achu Vijayan’s Vichithram, starring Shine Tom Chacko in the lead, were as mysterious as its was intriguing. The movie too promises more of that, as Achu tells OTTplay in an exclusive chat that it’s a film tailor-made for the audience to experience it in the theatres.

On the movie, Achu, who has been part of the industry as an editor for the past 10 years, “Vichithram is a crime mystery thriller that will also provide a horror experience. Horror doesn’t apply just to the presence of ghosts. The movie has several elements that will frighten the audience and that’s why it has to be watched in theatres. The filmmaker says that the team has paid a lot of attention and put in the most work to perfect its visuals as well as sound design.

The film also boasts of an eclectic cast including Balu Varghese, Lal, Kani Kusruti, Ketaki Narayan and Jolly Chirayath. Ask about the casting process and Achu explains, “Before the film’s scriptwriter, Nikhil Ravindran, narrated its script to me, he had pitched it to Shine chettan. He liked the idea and that’s how he guided Nikhil to me. So, Shine chettn and Kani were already cast when the script reached me. The rest of the casting just fell into place naturally. I have known Balu for a long time and we share a bond.”

The movie revolves around a family comprising a mother and her five children, and the events they experience over a period of 10 days. “Balu plays Sine chettan’s brother in the film. We also have another newcomer and a set of twins whom we found after a long search,” says the director.

Ask him how much Shine's energy help the character and Achu says, “He was living the role,” quips Achu. “He is someone who goes into the details of each of his roles. From the look test onwards, he got into the skin of the character. He developed several mannerisms and glances, and from then on, it’s about repeating those movements. His character Jackson is different from his previous movies. It was an exciting process to watch him play the role.”

Also read: Varaal release date: When and where to watch Anoop Menon, Prakash Raj’s political thriller

Considering the multi-genre of the movie, was it a challenge to get producers on board? “It wasn’t too much of a hassle because right after the idea, we developed a synopsis and created a pitch deck for the production company. They were also looking for other scripts and they picked this as they thought it had potential for a theatrical release. Once the film was greenlit, it took us about two months to develop the script.”

Vichithram is set to release in theatres on October 14.

Share