Exclusive! Karan Johar giving me feedback on Hridayam still has me in a state of disbelief: Vineeth Sreenivasan

Director Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Hridayam, which is the second highest grossing Malayalam film this year, not only just won the hearts of the audience but also was popular among industry stalwarts in other languages, who were vying with each other for its remake rights. So, when Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions along with Fox Star Studios clinched the rights for its Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions, it was also quite unexpected and delightful for Vineeth.

In a recent exclusive interview with OTTPlay, the Malayalam actor-director opened up about his thoughts on Karan’s production house remaking the film. “It’s something that we never even thought about. I am someone who watched Kuch Kuch Hota Hai at Shyla Talkies in Kuthuparamba when I was Class 7. So, getting to talk to him (Karan) three to four months ago over the phone and listening to his feedback – all of that still has me in a state of disbelief,” says Vineeth, adding that he was content. 

Also read: Exclusive! Vineeth Sreenivasan on Hridayam’s music: A song’s shelf life is much more than a movie’s 

The coming-of-age drama, which has Pranav Mohanlal, Darshana Rajendran and Kalyani Priyadarshan in the lead, also won two Kerala State Film Awards this year for Best Music Director and Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value.

“One of those State awards was unexpected. A day before I was to join the sets of Thankam, there was a look test for the film in Thrissur. I was getting ready to cut my hair, the barber had arrived and when I had switched on the TV, that’s when I saw this news,” says Vineeth, on how he received the news of the award win.

He, however, says that the team was hoping its composer Hesham Abdul Wahab would get an award. “This was because last year, there weren’t as many movies for which people had invested so much time and effort for the music. Also, Hridayam had a lot of songs belonging to different genres, and so we knew his name was definitely worth consideration,” he explains. “But I never expected an award for Best Film with Popular Appeal, but our producer Visakh (Subramaniam) would say that there was a chance we would get it.”