Anoop Menon explains why Phoenix will work better than a lot of other recent dark thrillers

“It’s difficult to cater to everyone; all you can do is to increase your niche audience,” Malayalam actor Anoop Menon tells OTTplay, when asked if filmmakers now get ahead of themselves while making a concept-driven film and fail to judge how it would connect to the viewers. It’s very self-aware of Anoop, much like his films, considering that the actor-director-scriptwriter’s movies appeal mostly to a certain section of audience.

His next movie Phoenix, which is directed by Vishnu Bharathan and scripted by Midhun Manuel Thomas, is one of those concept-driven films – “a genre bender”, as Anoop puts it. In an exclusive interview with OTTplay ahead of Phoenix's theatrical release , Anoop, who along with Chandhunadh G and Aju Varghese essay the pivotal characters in Phoenix, talks about the movie, what he found inspiring about its making and more.

Phoenix is scripted by Midhun, who himself is a director. You would have read the script as an actor, but given that you are a filmmaker and a scriptwriter yourself, how easy is it for another director to translate what Midhun has written on screen, considering that he has been on a spree lately writing both Garudan and Turbo too?

Vishnu had come up with the story and Midhun developed it. It’s not like Midhun finished writing Phoenix in a few days; he has been writing for the past four years. In fact, he has been writing prolifically since the pandemic. He is someone who invests so much in a script, unlike me for whom it’s a spur-of-the moment thing. That’s a different kind of writing, but both work in different ways.

Phoenix is produced by Rinish KN, who had also backed 21 Grams. When its director Bibin Krishna brought the script to him, he saw a potential in it and that was the reason we decided to begin the shoot in two weeks. Rinish is a producer, who believes in the strength of the script rather than the stars. At that point of time, to make an investigative thriller of that magnitude with me as a protagonist, was risky. But he had faith in that script. It’s the same with Phoenix too; it has a sort of newness to it.

What is Phoenix about?

It’s a love story interspersed with horror elements. It doesn’t have the safety net of comedy. The makers have crafted the film in a way that it would work better if it is watched in theatres – be it Sam CS’ music or Alby’s frames. Among the three actors, I probably have the least screen space in this film, but it’s a very important role. It’s the first time that I am playing a priest.

Watch Gadar 2 on OTTplay by subscribing to the Jhakaas pack which provides access to 16 OTTs at just Rs 199/month. 

Even when I went to the sets, the way they envisioned this film – from its location to the kind of work that each and everyone in the technical crew put in, I was in for a surprise. That was inspiring.

Post the pandemic, there are very few dark thrillers or of the horror genre that have worked in Malayalam. Is that a cause for concern now, especially with it being increasingly hard to get people back to theatres and Phoenix actually releases on a Friday when there are movies like Falimy and Sesham Mikeil Fathima also coming out?

More than a dark thriller, the USP of Phoenix is that it is new – it’s a mix of horror and romance. We haven’t seen a lot of such movies in Malayalam. In Hollywood, there have been similar movies. The film also delves with the idea of time travel. Also, people, who weren’t associated with the movie but saw it, liked it because it presented something new. And the best part is that it emotionally connects with the audience. Often, dark movies don’t work well because the viewers don’t relate to it. For instance, Rorschach, apart from it having Mammukka, the audience emotionally connects with his character and past.

Also read: Rorschach to Kannur Squad: Mammootty’s best post-pandemic films streaming on OTT 

Do you think, especially with concept-driven films, a lot of filmmakers get ahead of themselves – thinking that the concept is something that the audience would appreciate a film for – rather than also investing time on creating something that simultaneously hooks the audience through the film?

You can’t cater to everyone. That’s difficult. You can only increase your niche audience. That’s what people like me, who aren’t into these ‘big event films’ are trying to do. We fail at times, but we still keep trying. See, Padma didn’t work in theatres, it had average box office collection. But it worked well in OTT. That’s where the bulk of Padma's revenue had come from. 

So, right now, there are so many revenue channels and exhibition possibilities. You can only cater to that. I can’t shoulder a Rs 10 crore film; what I can bank on is the content. That’s why I am doing films like Ohh… Cinderella. I am not sure about how much theatrical experience I will be able to provide with my films, which actually might work better on OTTs. So, it’s all about taking a chance.

Also read: Anoop Menon on Padma’s OTT deal: ‘It was a highly profitable film for me as a producer’ 

That said, if Padma didn’t work, I wouldn’t have produced Ohh… Cinderella and similarly, if this movie doesn’t work, then I won’t know if I will be able to make another movie. But I will try.