Thallumaala: Animators accuse makers for not crediting them, after subtitle artists lash out against Netflix

While Thallumaala, starring Tovino Thomas and Kalyani Priyadarshan, is among the biggest Malayalam hits this year, the film also has had to face its fair share of controversies, especially after it dropped on Netflix earlier this month.

The first of these was from the film’s subtitle artists – Fill In The Blanks – who had issued a statement saying that the Netflix team had “substantially edited, watered-down, butchered” their work. The past week, the film’s animation team – Kokaachi – also had lashed out against the makers of the film for repeatedly not crediting them.

The animation team took to their social media page on September 11, the day Thallumaala dropped on the streaming platform, to say that the “powers-that-be” had refused to acknowledge their contribution and share the names of the artistes who had worked on the film’s animated scenes, which were wide praised by the audience and to an extent gave the film its unique style.

Also read: Exclusive! Tovino Thomas: Mammootty, Mohanlal didn’t become stars by doing mass films, they are my role models 

This prompted the makers to apologise to them “for missing” their names on the title credits and explain that “it was an honest mistake from our side”. Kokaachi, however, stated that they completely understand if it was an honest mistake, but that’s not the case here as the team had “ample time and opportunity to correct the mistake”.

The post on their Instagram page says that they first spotted the error when the movie had released in theatres on August 12 and they found out that their names were missing from the end credits. The team said they had even checked with the film’s production team to ensure that they hadn’t missed their email but this was attributed to a human error that would be fixed during its OTT release on Netflix.

But it wasn’t when the movie found its way on Netflix either. “When the same mistake was repeated again and again again… it’s no longer an ‘honest’ mistake,” went the post. The Instagram post that was peppered with cuts from the movie and animations that the team made is being shared widely.

Meanwhile, Thallumaala has emerged as the fourth highest grossing Malayalam film this year after Mammootty's Bheeshma Parvam, Pranav Mohanlal's Hridayam and Prithviraj Sukumaran's Jana Gana Mana. The film had grossed over Rs 70 crore in worldwide box office collection and is still running in select theatres in Kerala.