The birth of Hallelooya
Hallelooya is written by Neram producer Abhiman and Suniraj
By : aravind k s
Update: 2015-10-08 00:10 GMT
It is his love for arts and visuals that made him opt for a fine arts course. Even amid the world of paintings, his mind was yearning to enter the world of cinema. Sudhi Anna, who hails from Kannur, is now all set to bring his debut directorial venture — Hallelooya — to the theatres.
Hallelooya will be a film which can gift you a nostalgic feel, though it is not a period flick, says Sudhi. “It is the story of a man, who comes back to his village with a particular agenda. It is neither a thriller nor a revenge flick as the one-line suggests. It is a feel good film and while watching this, everyone could relate to their childhood moments,” says Sudhi. When quizzed about the title, he says, “It is the name of the bus which connects the village, where the story happens, with the city.”
Sudhi says he got the offer to direct this movie unexpectedly. “As cinema was my passion, I used to scout for scripts after my graduation. It was then that I stumbled on a short story by K.R. Meera. Meera chechi agreed to give me a script based on that story and thus I started the pre-production work of that film. But owing to certain reasons, we had to shelve that project, which prompted me to shift to Chennai,” says Sudhi.
A meeting with Sukumar Thekkepat, now the line producer with Global United Media which distributed Shankar’s I and Rajamouli’s Baahubli – The Beginning, became a turning point in Sudhi’s life. “It was through Sukumar chettan that I got acquainted with Viji, the writer of Tamil films, Mozhi and 36 Vayadhinile. He agreed to write a script for me. When the script got completed, we began casting. In the meantime, we had to zero in on a producer as the banner we were planning was hesitant to go ahead with the project. It is during the hunt for new producer, again through Sukumar chettan, that I met Abhiman, who was the producer of Nivin Pauly’s Neram,” he says.
Though Sudhi’s aim, while meeting Abhiman, was to get a producer, that discussion took an unexpected turn when Abhiman gave him a script. “That was co-written by Abhiman and Suniraj. Abhi said that he was not in a situation to produce a film adding that if I am interested he would give me that script. I found it as an interesting one. When Suku chettan also backed me, I said ‘yes’ to Abhiman and that script is ‘Hallelooya’,” says Sudhi.