Mamta Mohandas, Priya Varrier’s Live highlights the pressure faced by media to create content 24/7: VK Prakash

Live, which also has Soubin Shahir and Shine Tom Chacko as part of the cast, is set to hit theatres on May 26

A poster of Live

Though director VK Prakash has dabbled in multiple genres over the past few years with mixed results, one thing that you cannot take away from the filmmaker is how his movies have always had strong female protagonists and tackled relevant themes. His latest movie, Live, is no different.

The film revolves around two women essayed by Mamta Mohandas and Priya Prakash Varrier, who have to endure challenges due to social media and a media organisation and finally decide to take on the fight.

Also read: Exclusive! Mamta Mohandas, Soubin Shahir’s Live revolves around the impact of media on people’s lives

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, VK Prakash says, “It’s a social thriller set against the backdrop of social media and its influence. There aren’t too many movies that have focused on the subject, even though there’s been documentaries and docu-fiction. It’s a relevant subject because at one point or the other, everyone in the public would have gone through the incidents that the film’s protagonists endure.”

Further on choosing the subject, the filmmaker says that social media creates a lot of problems for people, from stalking to invasion of privacy. “The film tries to cover all of that. Through the movie, I am not blaming anyone – the public or the media. For instance, we try to show the pressure that each side goes through. Earlier, you only had to create news content for 30 minutes, but now you have 24/7 news channels that need content to run. So, the demand for creating or finding news has exploded. The pressure confronting a young reporter these days is humungous and it’s so competitive. So, we show all those aspects,” he explains.

VK Prakash’s previous three movies – Pranaa, Erida and Oruthee – had strong female protagonists. Was this deliberate? “There are a lot of untapped stories about women in our society. Even in our literature, our women characters are strong and that’s why in the past we had rooted films where women were the protagonists,” he says. “Then we shifted away to more cinematic movies, shunning those stories of women. So, what I look for is such stories to inculcate into my movies. It’s not deliberate, it happens organically. There’s space for strong women characters in all our stories.”

Even though the movie travels through the two women, the film also has Soubin Shahir and Shine Tom Chacko in pivotal characters. “I have cast them against the grain. Shine would probably be the only guy who has done similar characters before, but even his performance is very different from what the audience has usually seen,” says the director, adding that the actor plays the role of a journalist.

On the other characters, he reveals, “Even Soubin plays a composed character while Priya has not done such a role before. Mamta plays a fluid role in this film. She’s a genuine actress and you could find a certain honesty in her performances, and that has helped this character a lot because the emotions come through well. It required her to react to each situation that her character faces in the plot; so more than a graph, it needed her to be spontaneous.”

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