My Dear Kuttichathan: Chota Chetan’s English version to get a global release, 2 new scenes added

Malayalam cinema’s seminal movie – My Dear Kuttichathan 3D – that first released in theatres in 1984 and had a re-release in 1997 has been remastered in English and is gearing up for a global release soon.

Director Jijo Punnoose, who had helmed the first ever Indian 3D movie, has also shot two new scenes as part of the English version titled Chota Chetan 3D that was made for the Cannes Film Festival.

A source from the team tells OTTplay, “The movie had first released almost 40 years ago. The updated version has two new sequences that were shot for exhibition at the Cannes Film Festival. Navodaya Studio will be releasing the movie in theatres globally this year.”

The new version also features music by prodigy Lydian Nadhaswaram, who has also composed the songs for Mohanlal’s upcoming 3D children’s fantasy Barroz. Ranganaath Ravee has done the sound design for the English version, which has dialogues by Sherylene Rafique and songs by Ravind Sangha, Sayanora and Alphons. The English version begins at Salisbury Highlands in England, featuring druids. Lillys Thaddeus has dubbed for the titular character Chota Chetan in the English version.

The movie follows the story of a magical spirit, known as Kuttichathan, who is befriended by a group of kids and free him from an evil magician. Their adventures form the plot of the movie, which had MP Ramnnath, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair and Sonia.

The movie, which was released as My Dear Kuttichathan in Malayalam and Tamil and Chota Chetan in Hindi and Chinnari Chetan in Telugu, was made on a budget of Rs 50 lakh in 1984 and brought in a revenue of Rs 9 crore during its initial release. Even during its re-release in 1998, it stood tall among the 12 other releases.

Jijo, in his blog, had credited Dubai-based film distributor Ahmed Golchin for urging him to come with an English version of the movie. “Credit for this endeavour goes to my friend Ahmed Golchin who expressed his desire to show the 40-year-old children's 3D film - one of his most favourite, to a global audience. I had to concede. Because this was a condition he laid for our making a biographical film on The Father of UAE Cinema,” he wrote.

The makers are yet to announce the release plans of the movie, which also has Urmila Matondkar, Dalip Tahil and Prakash Raj as part of the cast.