Fahadh Faasil’s ‘Joji’ comes to Amazon Prime

NEW DELHI: Malayalam crime drama Joji starring Fahadh Faasil directed by Dileesh Pothan starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday. Based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the film has been co-produced by Faasil and features Baburaj, Shammi Thilakan, and Unnimaya Prasad in pivotal roles along with him.

The popularity of south Indian offerings on streaming services is well known. In an earlier interview with Mint, Gaurav Gandhi, director and country general manager, Amazon Prime Video India, had said that 50% of the audience for the south Indian language films they premiered (on the service in 2020) had come from outside their native states.

Nation Award winner Faasil is the son of filmmaker Fazil. He began his film career at the age of 19 by starring in the lead role in his father’s 2002 romantic film Kaiyethum Doorath, which was a critical and commercial failure. After a gap of seven years, Faasil made his comeback with the anthology film Kerala Cafe (2009), in the short film Mrityunjayam. He attained public attention for his performance in the thriller Chaappa Kurishu (2011).

He gained critical and commercial success for his films in 2013, including romantic-drama film Annayum Rasoolum, black-comedy satire Amen, road movie North 24 Kaatham, drama film Artist, and romantic-comedy Oru Indian Pranayakatha. He followed it up with coming-of-age drama Bangalore Days (2014), which ranks among the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time. His performances in Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016), Take Off (2017), and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (2017), have won him accolades across the world while his 2018 satirical comedy Njan Prakashan ranks among the highest grossing films made in the language.

Faasil has also worked in Tamil cinema, having made his debut in the 2017 action thriller Velaikkaran starring Sivakarthikeyan, opposite whom he played the antagonist. He next appeared in the critically acclaimed Super Deluxe where he co-starred with Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha Akkineni and Ramya Krishnan. Faasil is slated to foray into Telugu cinema in 2021 with the film Pushpa starring Allu Arjun.