Suraj Venjaramoodu, Nithin Renji Panicker's Hotstar original to be a ‘dark humour’ series set in the 1970s

National Film Award-winner Suraj Venjaramoodu is the latest to join the web series bandwagon in Malayalam. The actor is set to begin shooting for Kaaval and Kasaba director Nithin Renji Panicker’s web series, which will begin streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

This will mark Suraj’s web series debut; the actor had earlier starred in Kaanekkaane that was a direct-to-OTT release on Sony LIV. Nithin and his team will start shooting the webseries, which belongs to the dark humour genre, on June 16 in Kannur.

The series will also feature Kalabhavan Shajohn, Prashanth Alexander, Janardhanan, Ramesh Pisharody, Grace Antony, Shweta Menon, Kani Kusruti, Niranjana Anoop and Alphy Pannikaran as part of the cast. As per a report on Kerala Kaumudy, the series will wrap up in a single schedule of 40 days.

Nithin, who has also scripted the series, will team up with another National Award-winner, cinematographer Nikhil S Praveen, as part of the project, which is set in the 1970s. The filmmaker said that OTT projects offer the luxury to get away from the tension of success and failures of theatrical releases and the freedom to experiment.

Also read: 1000+ Babies: ‘Rahman, Neena Gupta’s Hotstar Malayalam web series has potential to appeal to audience across world’ 

The untitled project marks the fourth web series that Disney+ Hotstar has greenlit, after Ahammed Khabeer’s police procedural Kerala Crime Files, Praveen Chandran’s comedy series and Najeem Koya’s 1000+ Babies. Kerala Crime Files, which stars Lal and Aju Varghese, will begin streaming on the platform from June 23. While Praveen’s series, which is scripted by Kunjiramayanam’s writer Deepu Pradeep, has Sunny Wayne, Nikhila Vimal and Aju in the lead, 1000+ Babies has Rahman and Neena Kurup in the lead. All web series that will be streaming on Disney+ Hotstar are also expected to be available in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada.

Meanwhile, Sony LIV has also greenlit Saiju Kurup’s social satire titled Jai Mahendran, which is currently in production. The series also has Suhasini Mani Ratnam in a pivotal role.