My film is not just a horror comedy; it also has fantasy elements, says Selvin

Selvin R Xavier’s Conjuring Kannappan revolves around characters who have to face ghosts in their dreams. Interestingly, the debutant got this knot in his dream! “In 2020, I had a dream in which I was being murdered, and when I woke up, I felt so much pain in my body. This seemed like a good hook for a script, and when I narrated it to friends, they found it interesting,” begins Selvin, who has assisted Sumanth Radhakrishnan and Chimbudeven.

Continuing his film’s origin story, he adds, “I started researching further and learnt about the dreamcatcher, which is believed to generate positive dreams. Through this, I added a fantasy element to my story.”

Having worked with Sathish, who played the comedian in Sumanth’s Sugar, he had a good equation with the actor, and wrote this script with him in mind. “Sathish took me to executive producer Venkat Manickam, who loved the script, and then brought producer Kalpathi Aghoram on board,” he recalls. “Aghoram sir and his daughter Archana Kalpathi believe in making content-oriented films, and they let me mount this film on a larger scale than I had originally envisioned,” he adds.

What sets his horror comedy apart, Selvin says, is the fact that the ghosts are treated with seriousness in the film. “Ellarumpanra maadhiri naanga pei-ya kalaaichu comedy pannala. Since Sathish was going to be a protagonist, I have made the film as a family entertainer that’s all about what happens when a normal family gets trapped in a haunted place from where there seems to be no escape. Kids will especially love this film a lot as it has comedy and fantasy elements that will appeal to them,” he says.
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