A film that has no stars in it

A major attraction of Lijo Jose Pellissery’s 2015-release Double Barrel was that it was a multi-starrer. The Amen director’s movie had an ensemble star cast comprising Prithviraj, Indrajith, Arya, Sunny Wayne, Asif Ali, Swathy Reddy, Isha Sharvani and Pearle Maaney in the lead roles. As the director is back in action with Angamaly Diaries after a break, he opts a project without any established actors.

Was it a deliberate move? “Our initial plan was to cast some known actors from Malayalam film industry itself. Later, we felt that it would be better to cast newcomers to avoid prejudice on the characters,” says Lijo. Interestingly, the director is the only known face that appears in front of the camera.

“It was just one small shot in that song. In fact, I was standing there to arrange the actors for that shot and I could not move when the camera started rolling,” he says.

The director points out that Angamaly Diaries is his first film to be filmed in candid style. “As the name indicates, the entire film is shot completely at Angamaly. We opted to can scenes sans normal filming style as the houses and areas chosen for the film are that of our friends. The majority of the scenes were shot without creating the ambience of a shooting location,” says Lijo, who had filmed an 11-minute shot in the film.

“It was not a planned move. When we went there to film that scene, we understood a single shot will do better. Moreover, we had enough support to shoot the film there. It took around two days to lock the final take. More than thousand junior artistes and residents of that area were present while filming that shot. It was really risky shooting it in such an ambience,” he recollects.

Quiz about his new assignments and he says, “As of now, I have not finalised my next. Now I am busy with the release of Angamaly Diaries.” The movie will reach screens on March 3.