Fahadh, Roshan’s lockdown film makes its OTT debut

The film has been produced by Fahadh Faasil and Nazriya with Fahadh, Roshan Mathew, and Darshana Rajendran in lead roles. After his Onam celebrations in the morning, Mahesh had a chat with us. “Fahadh and I had our film titled Malik due for release. We couldn’t send the film to the Censors due to lockdown. There was a lot of uncertainty especially for the film industry across the globe. Software professionals and journalists have the option of work-from-home whereas we don’t. So, my crew members and I were left wondering what to do next. I am a person, who easily goes into depression for such things, which Fahad easily understood and sent me a mail saying we should do something. That is how C U Soon began,” he tells DT Next. 

Mahesh says that he least knew that C U Soon will be a feature film until the release was planned. 

“My journalist friend from the Middle East had sent me a video of a girl pleading with her family to rescue her from one of the Gulf countries and I had shared it with Fahad. He remembered that video and said we could work on this. He said we could do it as a short film or a feature film. So, I didn’t know what it would turn out to be until we decided on the final cut. C U Soon is now a 92- minute film,” he opens up. The story that revolves around a video call was completely shot during the lockdown.

 “It is a computer screen film and I had the responsibility of keeping my audience glued to their mobiles for 90 minutes. People felt that the trailer gave away the story. But no. C U Soon is something beyond what you have seen in the trailer. My first two films Take Off and Malik were emotional thrillers. Whereas, this is a thriller which only has emotions when and wherever it is needed,” he says. Having shot during the lockdown, the trailer has a scene with a Dubai backdrop to it with people all around. “We completely shot it in Kochi. The scene which you mentioned was also shot at a hotel in Kochi, which has middle eastern architecture. The Dubai Metro scenes you saw were shot by my assistant who is based in Dubai,” he reveals.

 With Malayalam films trending during the lockdown, will Kerala and Malayalam film industry be the hub of OTT content in India in the future we ask Mahesh. “I am always game for a theatrical release and that is how I make my films. Moreover, OTT can never have a future in India. People are emotionally connected to theatres here. They need to go out and spend time with their family. To be honest, theatres will only be more crucial in the future because 4K and 8K content will be buffered online on theatre screens. Wait and watch,” he smiles. He also clarifies that he would have still shot a film like C U Soon even if not for the lockdown. “Only thing is that there would be more people on the sets and Fahad would have had a caravan for himself. We didn’t have that luxury here but we did not compromise on any of the payments to our technicians who worked with us,” he concludes.