Exclusive! Prakash Raj plays Kerala chief minister in Anoop Menon, Madhuri Braganza-starrer Varaal

Veteran actor Prakash Raj seems to be the first choice for roles of people in positions of authority in Mollywood. After playing a district collector in Kunchacko Boban’s upcoming film Pada, the actor recently wrapped his portions for Anoop Menon-starrer Varaal as Kerala chief minister.

Talking to OTTplay about his role, the film’s director Kannan Thamarakkulam tells us, “Prakash Raj will be seen as Kerala chief minister while Anoop Menon also essays a politician. The four major characters in the film are played by the duo along with Sunny Wayne and Renji Panicker.”

Apart from the four leads, Varaal, which is scripted by Anoop Menon, also has Renji Panicker, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Suresh Krishna and Saikumar. “The film has about 50 mainstream artistes as part of the cast and almost all of them play politicians,” informs the director.

The female lead of the movie is essayed by Joseph fame Madhuri Braganza. “The story of her character Mallika drives the film. She is the girlfriend of Anoop Menon’s character; revealing more than that would spoil the suspense of the movie,” says the filmmaker, who had earlier worked with the actress in Pattabhiraman.

Further on shooting the film amid the pandemic, the director says, “In the past year, I have worked in two other movies, Udumbu and Virunnu, so I am now aware of how to go about shooting amid the pandemic. Even on days with 100 artistes on the set, we ensured that we took RT-PCR tests for each of them. Also, the majority of the cast and crew have taken both doses of vaccine. We were strict that not a single positive case should be reported from the sets,” concludes the filmmaker.

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