Mohanlal’s next film to release for Republic Day weekend

New Delhi: Actor Mohanlal will be seen in a new film to be directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, titled Malaikottai Vaaliban, that is scheduled to release on 25 January, 2024 for the Republic Day weekend. Pelliserry is best known for Anagamaly Diaries and Jallikattu, the latter being India’s official entry to the Oscars in 2020.

Mohanlal made his acting debut at age 18 in the Malayalam film Thiranottam in 1978, but the film was delayed in its release for 25 years due to censorship issues. His screen debut was in the 1980 romance film Manjil Virinja Pookkal, in which he played the antagonist. He continued to do negative roles and rose to secondary lead roles in the following years. By the mid-1980s, he had established himself as a bankable leading actor and attained stardom after featuring in several successful films in 1986; crime drama Rajavinte Makan released that year garnered much acclaim.

Mohanlal primarily appears in Malayalam cinema, but has also been seen in some Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Some of his best known non-Malayalam films include the Tamil political drama Iruvar (1997), the Hindi crime drama Company (2002) and the Telugu film Janatha Garage (2016).

Recently seen in crime thriller Drishyam 2 that released on Amazon Prime Video, he has notched up several hits in recent years. These include Telugu action drama Janatha Garage that made worldwide collections of Rs. 135 crore and director Priyadarshan’s Malayalam crime thriller Oppam that collected ₹65 crore worldwide. The latter would’ve remained the highest Malayalam grosser of the time when released in 2016 but the actor beat his own record with Pulimurugan, an action adventure that garnered ₹152 crore worldwide. It is currently one of the highest grossing Malayalam films of all time.

The Indian government honoured him with Padma Shri in 2001, and Padma Bhushan in 2019, India’s fourth and third highest civilian honours, for his contribution to Indian cinema.