Dhoomam director Pawan Kumar: Fahadh Faasil isn’t bothered if a film will maintain his star value

Kannada filmmaker Pawan Kumar, who has helmed critically acclaimed films such as U-Turn, Lucia and also the Telugu web series Kudi Yedamaithe, is all set for his Malayalam debut with the Fahadh Faasil and Aparna Balamurali-starrer Dhoomam.

The idea for the movie first germinated back in 2008, and the filmmaker had wanted to make it in Kannada. In fact, he had even approached several producers, actor and also tried to kick-start crowd-funding campaign to get the movie on floors, highlighting the film’s anti-smoking theme.

Also read: Dhoomam 2023: Release date, trailer, cast, budget, behind the scenes, OTT partner and more 

It wasn’t until the makers of KGF and Kantara, Hombale Films, came on board, more than a decade later, that the filmmaker could roll out the movie – though with a different cast than what he initially had in mind and most importantly, in a different language.

That said, getting Malayalam star Fahadh Faasil to be part of the film probably is a boon, given how much his popularity has soared across the country, post-pandemic, with releases such as CU Soon and Pushpa.

Also read: Dhoomam: OTT rights of Fahadh Faasil, Hombale’s thriller sold to this platform? 

In a recent interview with Scroll, Pawan opened up about working with Fahadh, who made him feel like he was directing a debutant. “I initially thought that because has such a vast body of work, he might try to do things in a certain way, judge me. But he wasn’t like that all,” he said, adding that the Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum star had no hang-ups and that’s a prime reason the movie’s shoot could wrap in 46 days.

The filmmaker is also impressed with how Fahadh comes with no baggage or tags like “galaxy star”. “Fahadh is someone who doesn’t care about his previous film. His approach is: how is a project challenging him as an actor? He doesn’t care if it will maintain his star value, because he never thought of himself as a star anyway,” said Pawan.

Dhoomam, which is set to hit theatres on June 23, in Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi also stars Roshan Mathew, Vineeth, Anu Mohan and Achyuth Kumar.