Raj B Shetty on his debut Malayalam film Rudhiram: ‘I love this film because of the way it’s written’

For debutant filmmaker Jisho Lon Antony, the first task after convincing National Award-winner Aparna Balamurali to join the cast of his debut film Rudhiram was to find an equally brilliant actor as the parallel lead. While several names had come up in his discussions with the film’s co-writer Joseph Kiran George, that of Kannada actor-director Raj B Shetty suited the role the best, said the director, recently at the film’s pooja function.

Jisho admitted that even when he was narrating the script to the Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana actor-director, he never thought the Kannada star would agree to be part of the film. “It’s such an honour that said ‘yes’ and trusted me. It’s truly a privilege to work with him,” said Jisho, at the function that was held recently.

Raj, who has already begun shooting for the survival drama, said that he was blessed to foray into the Malayalam film industry with Rudhiram, which has Midhun Mukundan as its composer.

“I am so glad that such a beautiful industry with such great actors has welcomed me. It’s a great gesture. I really love the film because of the way it’s written and I hope I do justice to this role. If I’m being very honest, I am scared because it’s all new to me. It’s a new language and I need to learn,” said the actor, thanking the crew for believing that he could pull off the role,” he said.

In an earlier interview with OTTplay, Jisho said, “It’s a film that starts out as a survival drama and then evolves into a revenge drama. It doesn’t have a specific protagonist or antagonist. Every character is extremely good as well as bad; so, it depends entirely on the audience’s perspective.” Apart from Malayalam, Rudhiram is expected to be released in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

Meanwhile, Aparna most recently wrapped up the shoot of Kannada director Pawan Kumar’s Malayalam directorial Dhoomam, which is produced by Hombale Films and has Fahadh Faasil and Roshan Mathew as part of its cast.