What’s happening with Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph’s Ram duology? Director explains | Exclusive

The Drishyam duo will now teaming up for an altogether different film, which will go on floors in August

Mohanlal in a poster of Jeethu Joseph's 12th Man

Even amid the excitement of the announcement of Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph’s new film, fans have been curious about the status of their previous collaboration – Ram. The film, an action thriller, had gone on floors in 2019, only for production to be halted in February 2020 due to the global pandemic lockdown. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Ram since then.

On the current status of the movie, the film’s director Jeethu tells OTTplay, “The climatic conditions, where we are next planning to shoot, is currently unfavourable. So, there’s a delay. Also, there are other artistes we need for the combination scenes with Lalettan. We also need their dates. The only way to go about that is to have a fixed date in the future and then rework, accordingly. We should be able to complete the film by the end of this year.”

Also read: Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph to team up again, filmmaker reveals if it’s for Drishyam 3 | Exclusive

The team had resumed the shoot last year in August, with the makers planning several overseas schedules in the UK, Tunisia, Morocco and even Israel. But most of these were met with further delays due to situations outside their control.

In the UK, for instance, where the team had shot last year, the shoot had to be stopped because the authorities revoked all their permissions after Queen Elizabeth’s death. In an earlier interview with OTTplay, Jeethu said, “The Queen had died just four days before we were set to shoot the film. Once she passed away, a lot of our locations were cancelled for the wake.” This forced the team to reapply for permissions and wait till they were granted.

Also read: How Mohanlal succeeds despite delays in Prithviraj Sukumaran & Jeethu Joseph’s projects every time

The Moroccan and Tunisian schedules were also pushed for various reasons. The plan was to mount the project on a much bigger scale because of the popularity of the director-actor combination, especially after Drishyam 2. Also, the Ram duology has several action sequences for which foreign stunt choreographers have worked, and that meant sticking to their work hours, unlike the usual pattern followed by Malayalam filmmakers to complete their projects in break-neck speed.

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