Shane Nigam to play the lead in Priyadarshan’s upcoming thriller, also starring Arjun Ashokan, Shine Tom Chacko

Director Priyadarshan has finally decided to team up with young stars. The ace filmmaker’s upcoming film, which is touted to be a thriller, will have him collaborating with some of the best young talents in Malayalam cinema today – Shane Nigam, Shine Tom Chacko and Arjun Ashokan.

While Roshan Mathew was earlier rumoured to be in the running to play the lead in the film, it seems that the makers have now locked in on Shane Nigam, who has had a good run of late with movies such as Bhoothakaalam and Veyil.

The upcoming film, which is expected to go on floors by August-September this year, will also mark the filmmaker’s debut production venture. Priyadarshan will also be scripting the untitled movie, which has Maniyanpilla Raju, Johny Antony, Siddique and Appani Sarath. The actress is yet to be decided.

Priyadarshan on Tuesday had told OTTplay that he is currently in the final stages of confirming the casting and the shoot dates of the film, which will be produced under his own banner Four Frames along with NM Badusha.

Meanwhile, the director’s next project will be shooting his second for the upcoming Netflix anthology, which is based on acclaimed writer MT Vasudevan Nair’s stories. The writer had picked filmmakers who haven’t worked on his scripts earlier to helm the various featurettes in the Malayalam anthology.

The project, which comprises nine segments, has eight directors helming various short films. Jayaraj, Santosh Sivan, Shyamaprasad, Aswathy Vasudevan Nair, Ratheesh Ambat, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Mahesh Narayanan and Priyadarshan are the filmmakers. Priyadarshan is also the only director to helm two segments in the anthology.

He had completed shooting for his first short film Shilalikhithangal, starring Biju Menon, last year and will begin filming his second featurette – Olavum Theeravum – with Mohanlal in July. The only other short film to complete shooting in the anthology is directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery and has Mammootty in the lead.

Also read: Mohanlal, Mammootty and Fahadh star in Netflix’s anthology on MT Vasudevan Nair’s stories, here’s all we know