Prithviraj Sukumaran, Asif Ali’s Kaapa gets a release date, Shaji Kailas film to hit theatres during Christmas

It seems that Prithviraj Sukumaran will be following up his latest hit Kaduva with yet another Shaji Kailas directorial, Kaapa. The team has reportedly confirmed that the gangster thriller will hit theatres as a festival release during the Christmas season in December.

The movie, which is scripted by GR Indugopan, has a stellar ensemble cast, featuring Prithviraj as Kotta Madhu along with Asif Ali, Anna Ben and Aparna Balamurali in the lead. Shot entirely in Thiruvananthapuram, the movie is based on Indugopan’s novel Shankumukhi and revolves around the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act that came into force in 2007. According to KAAPA aka Goonda Act, the police have the power to imprison people who are a threat to society for up to a year.

Shaji Kailas began shooting Kaapa right after he had completed Prithviraj’s Kaduva. The film was initially supposed to be helmed by Venu, who had dropped out due to creative differences with its writing team. Manju Warrier, who was also supposed to play the lead, had opted out due to scheduling conflicts with her Tamil movie, Thunivu. This prompted the makers to rope in National Award-winner Aparna Balamurali as part of the cast.

Shaji Kailas had earlier said that though the movie will have some ‘mass’ elements, it is essentially a dark gangster thriller. Incidentally, Shaji will also have another release in December with Mohanlal’s Alone.

The latter, which marks their first collaboration in over a decade after Red Chillies, is a single-actor movie set during the pandemic lockdown. Mohanlal essays the role of an UN personnel who gets stranded in Kerala due to the lockdown. Both Prithviraj and Manju Warrier have lent their voices for characters, who will make their presence felt through phone calls in the movie, which also has Siddique.

While Kaapa is set to hit theatres on December 22, Alone, which was earlier touted to be an OTT release, is expected to release on December 2.