Christy on OTT: We expected it to connect with the youth but the family audience liked it more, says Alvin Henry

Malavika Mohanan and Mathew Thomas-starrer Christy, which was scripted by noted writers GR Indugopan and Benyamin, might not have created waves at the box office, but the film did please a section of the audience that weren’t the prime targets of the makers.

As Christy is gearing up for its OTT release on Sony LIV, OTTplay caught up with its director Alvin Henry to know about the feedback and the challenges of making and releasing the film.

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“Soon after the film’s release, there were mixed reactions, but after that a lot of people shared positive feedback,” says Alvin. “They said they could connect to the story. We thought the youth would relate to the story better but the positive responses came from the family audience. I think it also had to do with a lot of people in their early 30s being able to connect with film’s content and similar instances in their lives.”

The movie’s core story and especially Mathew Thomas’ character is based on Alvin’s life. Ask him if as a director he was too involved in highlighting elements that were special to him personally in the movie and the filmmaker says, “Some incidents which you hold dear in your life might not appeal to the larger section of the audience. I thought the best way to approach the film would be to showcase incidents that were special to me in real life, but now I feel it’s good to be objective about these things.”

The filmmaker also lauds its writers Indugopan and Benyamin, who made his screenwriting debut with the movie. “Having them onboard was definitely a valuable addition. They were the pillars of strength of this film; its very foundation,” says Alvin.

One of the highlights of the movie were its picturesque locations in Poovar, shot by cinematographer Anend C Chandran. “All these locations are extremely familiar to me. Like you see in the movie, I have roamed these places with my camera. The film’s visuals too travel through these places that are etched in my mind. We, actually, had more locations in mind but we couldn’t shoot all of them due to time constraints and other factors,” he explains.

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One of the main challenges these days have been the deluge of releases each week in Malayalam, making it tougher for small movies to wait for the audience’s word-of-mouth feedback to go around. “The week prior to Christy’s release, there were a few big superstar films as well as Romancham. There were several other films that had hit theatres along with our film. And by the time we started getting positive feedback, nine movies had released that week. So, we had to face that challenge,” says Alvin.

With the movie releasing on Sony LIV on March 10, ask him what his expectations are and he says, “I am hoping more family audiences will get to watch it and it would appeal to them. I am also hoping it would connect to a lot of millennials.”