Halitha Shameem resumes shooting for her ambitious film Minmini after a seven-year hiatus

Director Halitha Shameem, who carved a niche for herself with back-to-back acclaimed films, had put her ambitious project Minmini on backburner after shooting its first half a few years ago as she felt the second half of the movie required its central characters to grow up.

The filmmaker, who last directed the segment Loners for an anthology for Amazon Prime Video, has now resumed Minmini after seven years. Esther Anil, Pravin Kishore and Gaurav Kaalai play lead roles in the coming-of-age story which went on floors in 2015. The film's story revolves around the lives of a few teenage students.

Cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa, who has been part of many big ticket films recently, is cranking the camera for the movie which has Raymond Derrick Crasta in charge of editing. Interestingly, Pravin and Gaurav had essayed notable roles in Halitha's debut film Poovarasam Peepee.

A month ago, Halitha had taken to social media to announce that she's all set to resume shooting for the movie and released a few stills. The last two projects of hers, Aelay (streaming on Netflix) and Loners, were direct OTT releases. Sillu Karupatti (streaming on Netflix), her previous theatrical release, was also an anthology which hit the screens before the pandemic.

In an earlier interview with us, Halitha had explained why she took a seven-year hiatus to complete Minmini. The story of the movie which touches upon various emotions of teenage students happens in two time periods and the characters in its first half turn slightly older in the latter half.

She had also revealed to us that the film will have a release this year in theatres if everything goes as per her plans. Halitha said, "I will consider myself as a complete filmmaker only if I will be able to pull off this project."