Kerala floods movie '2018 Everyone Is A Hero' smashes Mollywood records

THRIUVANATHAPURAM: The Malayalam Tovino Thomas-starrer '2018 Everyone Is A Hero', directed by the award-winning popular director, Jude Anthany Joseph, is having a dream run and moving toward the Rs 100-crore club, a rare feat for a Mollywood movie.

And coming as it does at a time when 'The Kerala Story' is attracting nationwide attention, people close to the Malayalam film industry are saying that '2018' is "the real Kerala Story" and not the one that claims to be one.

The film is centred around stories of humanity triumphing over adversity in the backdrop of the 2018 floods that devastated parts of Kerala. It is the second Tovino project to attract national attention and draw an adulatory audience response after the 2021 superhero movie 'Minnal Murali'. And it also brings back memories of his performance in 'Virus', the 2019 film about the Nipah outbreak in Kerala.

Tovino, incidentally, volunteered his services for flood relief back in 2018. In the film, he plays a young man who leaves the Indian Army with a fake medical certificate and redeems himself during the floods.

The ensemble cast includes top Malayalam talents, notably Asif Ali, Kunchacko Boban, Lal and the National Award-winning actress, Aparna Balamurali, who plays a TV reporter.

The movie, which was released on May 5, raked in around Rs 5.18 crore on its ninth day from Kerala alone, which is an all-time record in Mollywood history. The worldwide collection is reported to be more than Rs 80 crore in the first nine days. The film is reported to be getting a standing ovation in theatres across the state.

Produced by Venu Kunnappilly, C.K. Padma Kumar and Anto Joseph under the banner of Kavya Film Company and P.K. Prime Productions, the film is the second back-to-back blockbuster from Kavya after the 2022 action adventure drama 'Malikappuram' starring Unni Mukundan.