Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Aadujeevitham to miss Cannes, eyes world premiere at Venice Film Festival: Blessy | Exclusive

As director Jude Anthany Joseph’s 2018 has once again proved that Malayalam filmmakers can create world-class movies with limited budgets, all eyes are now on Blessy and Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Aadujeevitham.

Prithviraj, who plays the central character of an abused Malayali migrant goat herder in Saudi Arabia, had previously said that the makers were hoping to premiere the big-budget movie at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which is scheduled to kick off from May 16.

Also read: Exclusive! Prithviraj on Aadujeevitham: It’s tough for me, and given a choice I wouldn’t do it again 

Blessy, in an exclusive chat with OTTplay, confirms that the movie will not premiere at Cannes this year. “There's still work pending,” he tells us. “We have to finish a few VFX scenes. Some rework on the music is also remaining. If we complete everything by June 15, we are looking to have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.”

Also read: Aadujeevitham trailer: Dulquer, other celebs laud Prithviraj-starrer, call it ‘a real labour of love’, ‘masterpiece’ 

This year’s Venice Film Festival is scheduled to be held from August 30 to September 9. Blessy also tells us that the plan right now is to have the theatrical release of the movie, which also stars Hollywood actor Jimmy Jean-Louis and Amala Paul, in October 2023. Aadujeevitham, which is based on Benyamin’s eponymous novel, has AR Rahman composing its music.

The film’s trailer, which was leaked last month, offered the first glimpse from the movie that was shot in Jordan, Algeria and India. This, however, wasn’t how the makers had planned to release the visuals of the movie that was shot over the course of four years. Blessy was also quick to clarify that the trailer featured visuals before the VFX work was complete.

Also read: Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Aadujeevitham gets a release date? Here’s when the Blessy directorial will hit theatres 

“The video was a summary of a three-hour film. It was sent to the foreign agents to serve as a synopsis because it had an outline of how the entire story pans out,” the director explains. “We had plans of how to reveal Prithviraj’s get-up and other promotional materials. But then this happened and it could be because of our lack of planning.”

That said, Blessy points out that there have been positives too from the leak. “We got a lot of response for the movie internationally. So, that was something good that had come out of it,” concludes the director.