Kannada actress Shraddha Srinath is set to start work on her first film after the pandemic lockdown. The upcoming film, which has Mohanlal in the lead and is directed by B Unnikrishnan, has her playing an IAS officer and will mark her Malayalam comeback five years after starring in Kohinoor.
Talking about choosing a Malayalam film to resume work, Shraddha says, “There was no reason to say no, particularly with Mohanlal sir in it. And Unni sir gave a great narration. Also, I have constantly been trying to make a foray into Malayalam again after Kohinoor.”

With the film being her first project in the new normal and that too in a new language, does she feel nervous? “Absolutely,” says the Vikram Vedha and Jersey actress. “In fact, I have been having strange thoughts like ‘have I lost it?’ because I have been feeling rusty. And apart from the pressure of it being a Malayalam film, the language issue is daunting. It took me some time to get used to even Tamil and people say Malayalam is harder to grasp. Also, I will be acting with a living legend. So, definitely there’s this fear of ‘do I still have it after all these months of absolutely no practice’.”
Shraddha, who plays a revenue divisional officer in the yet-to-be-titled movie, is expected to join the sets in Kerala by November 23, but before that will undergo a seven-day quarantine. “Unni sir told me that there are strict measures in place and my staff too has to quarantine; the entire Malayalam film industry has been following the precautions and no one is exempted from it. I feel confident and I am expecting a disciplined set. To be honest, if you are stepping out of your home, you have to know that where you are going is safe,” she says.

The movie, meanwhile, is arguably one of the bigger films to go on floors in Mollywood during the pandemic. B Unnikrishnan tells us, “It’s being made on a budget of Rs 18 crore. We have a bigger than usual crew by pandemic standards and the schedule is for 60 days.”

While the film, scripted by Udayakrishna, has a village backdrop, the filmmaker says “it’s an eventful movie made on a big canvas and will have all elements of a ‘mass’ Mohanlal-starrer”. “That’s also why the making of the film will be interesting. The films that are being shot now in Malayalam following the Covid-19 protocols do not have stunt choreography. But this movie will have that. The fight master and his assistants will take the Covid tests and quarantine for seven days. Even after that, their team would have to maintain social distancing. So, we have a proper plan in place just like how movies with action sequences are being shot in Bollywood and Telugu right now,” says Unnikrishnan, adding that the team has “allotted Rs 30 lakh for all the tests and the Covid precautions”.

The movie, which is aiming for a 2021 Onam release, also stars Saikumar, Siddique, Vijayaraghavan, Ashwin Kkumar