PremiumAntony Varghese’s Aanaparambile World Cup locks its release date, here’s when the football film will hit theatres
Aanaparambile World Cup, which is helmed by Nikhil Premraj, also has Balu Varghese, Jumana Khan and Lukman Avaran
Last Updated: 12.16 AM, Nov 18, 2022
After a wait of almost three years, debutant director Nikhil Premraj’s Aanaparambile World Cup is set to hit theatres and there can’t be a better time for a film based on football to release, especially with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 set to begin from November 20.
The upcoming Malayalam movie, which has Antony Varghese, Balu Varghese, Lukman Avaran, TG Ravi, Nishanth Sagar, IM Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri and Jumana Khan in pivotal roles, is a children’s sports film with an element of fantasy.
The team had earlier tied up with Kerala Blasters football club ahead of the Indian Super League and also had its trailer launch at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kaloor, Kochi – the home ground for Kerala Blasters.
On the movie, the filmmaker had earlier told OTTplay, “Seven children play the main characters in the film. They love the game but they don’t have a ground or even funds to buy a football. How a group of youngsters help them out and train them for a U-14 tournament held by Kerala Blasters that has several big teams, form the plot.”
The movie marks Antony’s first movie in the genre. He had earlier this year changed gears from action films to a thriller with Jis Joy’s Innale Vare, which dropped on Sony LIV. The actor has since then signed a comedy as well as a romcom, before beginning work on Tinu Pappachan’s action-thriller Chaaver, which also has Kunchacko Boban and Arjun Ashokan.
Aanaparambile World Cup, which is set to hit theatres on November 25, will have Antony essaying the role of a footballer, who agrees to train the group of kids.
In an earlier interview with us, Nikhil had also said that the team had previously considered a direct-to-OTT release during the pandemic. The makers had even got a good offer initially. “However, streaming services had bought a few Malayalam films for huge prices but none of them got the expected returns. This impacted our movie too and they backed out,” said Nikhil.