Exclusive! Monster director Vysakh: Movies that offer the most entertainment to audience drive the industry

Malayalam director Vysakh, along with Joshiy, is probably the go-to filmmaker in the industry when it comes to making big-budget ‘mass’ entertainers. After doing Mohanlal’s Pulimurugan and Mammootty’s Madhuraraja, he has chosen Night Drive, a film which he admits is made on a smaller scale compared to his previous films because its script only demanded that setting.

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Vysakh weighed in on the debate that it’s the big-budget entertainers that drives the industry by providing the necessary business, which also benefits the theatres and distributors, as compared to OTT releases where only the producers and streaming services get revenue.

“We must understand that OTT is a revolution of sorts,” he said. “Before it became popular in India, it was available in other countries. So, it was always going to reach our country and the pandemic only expedited its progress. Even if you look at Hollywood films, the trend is that they would first release it in theatres and then stream it on digital platforms.”

Vysakh, however, says he doesn’t agree with the thought that it’s just big films that contribute to the industry. “I’d like to think it’s the movies that provide the most entertainment to the audience that will run the most in theatres; these could be movies made at any budget. There are so many films made on small budgets that have become huge successes just like the big movies. Similarly, there have been failures in both categories,” he says.

Movies that thrive are those that have the entertainment value and every filmmaker is trying to achieve that with their films, the Seniors director says. “At the end of the day, cinema is an artform. We can only try, we can’t guarantee. I don’t think we can segregate films based on their budgets; we now watch Hollywood blockbusters, made on massive budgets, on OTT platforms. So, movies can work on both platforms,” he explains.

Night Drive, which has Anna Ben, Roshan Mathew and Indrajith Sukumaran, is set to hit theatres on March 11. Meanwhile, Vysakh is also busy with the post-production of Mohanlal’s Monster, which he says can work in both theatres and on OTT.

Also read: Exclusive! Vysakh: Night Drive is a thriller that very much fits into my kind of films made for entertainment