Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum director Akhil Sathyan’s next to be modelled after Sherlock Holmes, Watson & Moriarty

Despite director Akhil Sathyan’s directorial debut Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum receiving positive response since its release and the Fahadh Faasil-starrer grossing over Rs 15 crore at the box office, one grouse that the filmmaker has is how a section of people “lazily” compared his film to his father Sathyan Anthikad’s works.

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, Akhil says, “It disappointed me that people lazily tagged this movie as a typical Sathyan Anthikad, feel-good movie. This wasn’t like any of the films that my father had done.”

Also read: Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum: A lot of people were against casting Anjana Jayaprakash with Fahadh, says Akhil Sathyan 

The director explains that he had shot in locations in Goa that wasn’t shown in any other Indian film before and had taken pains to ensure that the movie had a fresh appeal. “But people overlooked all of that. If I had a different surname, people would have definitely said that it was a fresh movie. Instead, a lot of the feedback for this film was also what has plagued my father’s movies on social media. I want to break that with my next movie,” he says.

And for his next venture, the filmmaker has chosen a script that will be modelled after a Sherlock Holmes story, but with female leads. “It does have a mould of Sherlock films but when the scripting is complete, that template will not remain. We do have a Sherlock, Watson and Moriarty; that’s the structure that I am developing but eventually it will be an independent, desi film,” he clarifies. “I liked the concept, it’s about a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, being Sherlock and Watson, respectively.”

Also read: Fahadh Faasil handled his role in Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum like Mohanlal did in my dad's movies: Akhil Sathyan 

As for the casting, Akhil confirms that he has zeroed in on Urvashi for Watson's role. “We are yet to confirm the heroine. Similarly, even though the male character is the antagonist, his role will be equally relatable and can move the audience,” says the director. “Both (brother) Anoop and I adhere to our father’s vision of telling a story through human emotions. I have already got two scenes that are poignant and it comes from the villain. He’s not the typical antagonist and so we could end up casting a popular hero in the role.”

Akhil, who had also scripted and edited Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum, also clarifies that the movie will be a bid budget venture. “It will have action as well. We are planning to make it on a big scale and have approached an action choreographer from outside the industry,” he concludes.

Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil.