Op Java director Tharun Moorthy’s Saudi Vellakka is a family drama

After the success of his debut venture, cyber investigation thriller Operation Java, earlier this year, writer-director Tharun Moorthy has announced his next.

Saudi Vellakka

CC225/2009, which is set to start shoot tomorrow, is a family drama.


The film will have

Lukman

, debutant Devi Varma, Sudhi Koppa, Binu Pappu and Srindaa, among others. Speaking about associating with character actors, Tharun says, “After the success of my first film - the rights of which have been bought in other languages - there were several opportunities to associate with big names and there was a big film in the wings, but I was also keen to do a project with a social commitment, so I decided to go with this. Having said that, though this is a small film, this is also a commercial entertainer, with humour, family drama and songs. The film is more content, rather than artiste, focussed and I felt these are the actors who would bring the story to life.”

Tharun says this film has the same sort of treatment as his debut and can’t be slotted into a watertight genre, but is quite an emotion-driven drama, which he was keen to narrate. “This is Lukman’s first film as a lead character, but the story is not focused on one person, like in Java, in which some people though Balu Varghese and Lukman were the lead, but others thought it was Binu Pappu or Vinayakan. It is the same in this. Srindaa’s character, for example, takes forward the story at one point in this film; that is my style of treatment,” says Tharun, adding that introducing about 80 debut talents through this project is very satisfying.

Why Saudi Vellakka? Tharun clearly doesn’t want to give away any secrets, but he says with a laugh, “The vellakka is an important character.”

This film will be shot in Chellanam, Thoppumpady and Perumbavoor. Cinematography is by Sharan Velayudhan and Nishad Yusuf is the editor. Debutant Pali Francis is the composer.