Exclusive! Antony Varghese’s Aanaparambile World Cup will release in theatres in December

The sports movie, directed by debutant Nikhil Premraj, also has Balu Varghese, Lukman Avaran, IM Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri

A still from Aanaparambile World Cup

With theatres in Kerala once again set to reopen soon, the filmmakers, who have been waiting for over a year and half with their movies, are gearing up for releases as well. One among the first few family entertainers to make their way to theatres would be Antony Varghese’s Aanaparambile World Cup, the teaser of which was released a few days ago.

Talking to OTTplay, the movie’s director Nikhil Premraj tells us, “We are planning a theatrical release after Ajagajantharam, which is currently aiming for pooja holidays. So, we are looking at December first week to release our movie.”

Aanaparambile World Cup, which is a football movie with elements of fantasy, has Antony playing a footballer named Hashim who coaches a group of youngsters in the U-12 tournament organized by a premier football club.

The team of the movie has been waiting for over a year and a half for its release. Nikhil, who has also scripted the film, however, is grateful that they could complete shooting the movie before the pandemic.

“It's a movie that required a lot of crowds. We couldn’t have shot it amid the pandemic,” he says, adding that they only filmed a minor cut shot after the lockdown.

Apart from Antony, the movie also has Balu Varghese, Lukman Avaran, TG Ravi, IM Vijayan, Nishanth Sagar, Danish, Archana Vasudev, Amal and Jo Paul Ancheri. Jakes Bejoy has composed the score of the film, which has Faiz Siddiq as its cinematographer. The movie is produced under the banner of Achappu Movie Magic and Mass Media Production.

Ask Nikhil if they had considered an OTT release for the film and he says, “There were some negotiations for an OTT release as there was some interest because the movie revolved around football. However, we felt it would work better as a theatrical release to attract the family audience. Also, financially, the deals that were offered didn’t quite match the time and effort we had spent making the movie.”

Also read: Jayasurya’s Sunny is the only Indian film to be selected for 2021 Calella Film Festival, Spain

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