June director's next, titled Madhuram, is a feel-good, mature romance

Ahammed Khabeer started the shoot of Madhuram on Friday and the

June

director says his current film could not be more different, in story and characterisation, from his 2019 ‘coming of age’ drama. While June followed the lead character through her exuberant senior school years, through finding love, making a career and getting married, Madhuram is a mature romance based on two generations. The film has Joju George and Shruti Ramachandran, and Arjun Ashokan and Nikhila Vimal, in the lead, with Indrans in a prominent role.

“I was set to start work on Insha Allah when the pandemic struck,” says Ahammed. “There was no way that we could go ahead with that because that story has little kids in the lead. Madhuram is a story that we could make on a smaller scale - though we are set to shoot in Kochi and Kolenchery, so we decided to start work on this. It is a feel-good, happy romance. We are starting the first day of shoot with Nikhila.”

Speaking about choosing Sruthi, who won the 2020 State Award for Best Dubbing Artist for Kamala, Ahammed explains that the role required a good character actor that would also work as a good pair for Joju. “It is also a different role for Nikhila, who has a slimmer look now. She usually plays a naadan girl; this has her in an upper middle class, urban role,” he says.

The story of Madhuram, which is by Ahammed, is written by Ashiq Aimer and Fahim Safar. The DoP is Jithin Stanislaus and music is by Hesham Abdul Wahab.