On eccentric creativity

That is how the director is. He announces his new movie from the sky. Sitting inside his flight from New York to Minneapolis, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan made a Facebook update on his next, Unmadiyude Maranam towards March end. After about a month long European tour, taking his latest film Sexy Durga to different festivals, the director has landed here just a couple of days ago.

In a month, the director plans to roll out the new film. “It tells the story of a filmmaker. The present hoopla surrounding restriction on creative freedom forms the crux. There is this artist-society conflict in the movie,” Sanal explains. Sanal, who loves doing a movie without a pre-planned script at hand, would repeat the format in his fourth film outing as well.

Sanal himself being an artist who has faced many struggles right from the making of his first movie says that his personal experiences do have an influence. “There is. Certain issues I had come across after the making of Sexy Durga has actually influenced me to plan my next,” says Sanal.

The director’s first movie, Oraalppokkam, holds the credit for being the first online crowd-funded film in Malayalam, which won him the state award for the best director in 2014. Now, as he stands at Unmadiyude Maranam, he has little woes on the financial side. Shaji Mathew and Aruna Mathew, who have bankrolled Ozhivudivasathe Kali and Sexy Durga are funding the new movie as well under the banner NIV ART Movies.

During the European trip, Sexy Durga was taken to the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York, Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles and St. Paul International Film Fest in Minneapolis. Up next, the movie is getting its Asian Premiere in the Hong Kong International Film Festival this week.

“Sexy Durga had been to 18 film fests so far. Indian premiere is likely to be at a popular film fest this year. In Kerala, we are about to go for the censorship-related procedures,” says Sanal. The movie has recently won the Hivos Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

Unmadiyude Maranam has its main location in Thiruvananthapuram. “A few portions are set for Himalayas and certain other parts for areas outside Kerala. As always, the cast is likely to be fresh faces. I can’t say how it is going to be. It evolves during the shoot,” Sanal signs off.