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An actress whose name was Manju Warrier was flabbergasted to be approached by film maker Anurag Kashyap at the premiere of Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Malayalm film Angamaly Diaries (2017) in Mumbai as he greeted her “very sweetly”. Warrier, who considers herself to be his “very big follower,” says that she was amazed that he even recognized her in any of his films. Quite self-effacing, isn’t it, the only female superstar of Malayalam cinema. The very mention of the term takes away the gorgeous grin off her lips. She takes a deep breath and says, “I really don’t like the word… I don’t believe in stardom or superstars, or even female and male actors, they are all just actors who work.”
The film industry in Malayalam moved during Manju Warrier’s two breaks in the industry.
The first one appeared in the 1990s when she was at the top of her career. The second happened in 2014 with Rosshan Andrrews’ film How Old Are You? Her appearance as Pachaiyammal in Vetrimaaran's Dhanush-starrer Tamil film Asuran (2019) would become as unforgettable as her iconic roles earlier, even recalling her fierce Bhanu from Kanmadam (1998). “I’ve been blessed that very interesting stories have come my way, especially in Malayalam and Tamil, and now I am excited about Hindi too,” she adds. In Mr X, her upcoming Tamil film, she plays a special agent. Warrier is now keen to speak about her role in Saiju Sreedharan's Footage, which is set to release in Hindi this week. She says, “It's a new challenge that I am always eager to take on. It helps you to grow as an actor when you step into different zones and do things that you haven't done before. It keeps you wondering.”
Does she believe the shift from a very simple author-backed role to an unconventional film made over a decade was hard to make? She says no. “I felt changes have always been there. Change is the only constant. I came back to work, and perhaps with the return the technology had changed,” she notes.
And, of course, the audience, the attitude and the taste keep on changing and the cinema keeps changing as well. My shift was very smooth and natural,” remarks Warrier, “I can’t quite explain the differences, but they are there, and very apparent. Now the content needs to be the king. If the content is great and the film is executed well to entertain the audience, they will enjoy the film regardless of who the actor is. And being a woman, I feel very happy and immensely proud seeing so many women entering the industry now.”
Dileep, her current ex-husband who is accused in the infamous 2017 sexual assault case on the Malayalam Film Industry, has been dragging Warrier my entire life. And subsequently, she has to deal with stalking, harassment, and cyberattacks ever since. So, placed in such a vulnerable position, why does she smile so much? Well, “And it’s that simple. You have the power to pick and choose what deserves a reaction from you,” she said.
The relationship between Warrier and Kashyap, the current sensation in the Malayalam film industry, flourished eight years ago during the Bombay event of Warrier's movie. Recently, he made his debut in the South Indian cinema as the antagonist in Aashiq Abu's Rifle Club (2024). Kashyap, seemingly over the Bollywood phase, still keeps track of the happenings in the Southern film industry. Along with his old friend and producer Ranjan Singh, he recently announced the production of Natesh Hegde’s Kannada indie Vaghachipani/Tiger’s Pond which stars Malayalam pactor Dileesh Pothan. Pothan directed Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016) and co-produced Kumbalangi Nights (2019). Both of those films were cut by Saiju Sreedharan, who, after working on the Fahadh Faasil starrer Maheshinte.... said it was the most pleasurable experience because 'he had a different style of narration' and he was free to cut the film the way he wanted.
Kashyap showcased the film and Footage was one of 2022's Malayalam debuts from Sreedharan. The film that Kashyap and Singh now present and distribute will have its premier in theaters on the 7th of March. He graduated Chetana Media Institute in Thrissur, and now works out of his studio. While shy, Sreedharan explains he lacks any directorial experience by saying, “I never went to a set. I usually stay in my studio.” Now, he reveals “When I was younger, my friends and I would get together on Saturdays to try and shoot our own mini versions of Star Wars or Star Trek on a handycam. We then edited them in Pinnacle Studio, and that was when the whole thing started for us,” says Sreedharan.
Much like Sreedharan, Baby Varghese Nirmal had also stumbled onto something new. Footage is still considered one of the pioneers to incorporating found-footage filmmaking within Malayalam cinema. The difference in their two shorts when put side by side is astounding and they both depict two YouTube vloggers as the stars of the narrative.
In Footage, the story unfolds through the video recordings made by the characters. Each scene is a footage from those recordings. “That is the only visual language in the film,” explains Warrier, who plays a mysterious woman living in the same apartment as a voyeuristic vlogger couple (Vishak Nair and Gayathri Ashok) who take a camera along with them when they make the foolhardy decision to stalk her character into the forests of Thrissur.
Through a camcorder, the characters in the found-footage movie film a movie within a movie. The camera functions as a character in itself, creating the impression of the viewer being present in the action. This also induces a sense where the spectators appear to be watching real recordings of episodes. “I wanted to do something different,’ says Sreedharan, who learned, via phone, from Varghese that his was the first Malayalam found footages. Sreedharan claims that works such as Vazhiye “isn’t completely found footage. There are a few cheatings there. There is background score and music (by American film composer Evan Evans, the son of jazz pianist Bill Evans).”
“Found-footage films have their own challenges,” asserts Warrier. “Frame by frame, you start seeing everything as one long continuous shot. And the level of effort, choreography, planning and interaction among the cast and crew is drastically different than it is in a traditional film.”
The much awaited movie, that was sure to turn heads from the start, performed badly in the box office last year and before critics who discovered the thin screenplay a glaring weakness in the movie. But Singh states, “We genuinely believe it’s a good film. It’s a differently made film.”
“Sure, there are found-footage films, but this is quite a sleek and well-told tale.”
Sreedharan says that the film does face some hurdles in getting widely accepted and blames the film rating system, “We understood that it was a film meant for people older than 18, but we did not expect families to come rushing to cinema halls.” She continues, “Ultimately, every film has a destiny and every single one is made with the best of intentions. None are made to fail,” Warrier says with a smile. Warrier concludes, “We look forward to much better responses in Hindi and we hope the film reachess out to wide audience. Anurag Sir’s name has given so much support to the film which has made our transition to Hindi so easy. His popularity and love among the Hindi film audience will help the film get noticed.” He adds, “He would have loved to premiere it in English,” Sreedharan said.
“We think that if the Malayalam film had traveled to other parts of the country, there would have been no need for a Hindi release. Since it has not been placed on any OTT platforms, we believe we can put in the theatres for people to watch. This is why we currently intend to distribute the movie to between 25 to 30 theatres across nine cities,” Singh adds.
Witnessing a film on the big screen is a wholly different experience than seeing it on a TV or a device, and that is something to be fully enjoyed by everyone above 18 years of age. “We would want everyone above 18 years of age to watch the film,” Warrier explains, who also acts in the film and produced it with Movie Bucket, a production company she set up with producer Bineesh Chandran. She has an independent production house called Manju Warrier Productions which has realised films like A’hr/Kayattam (2020) and Lalitham Sundaram (2022). “We tried several investors but no one was going to produce it,” says Sreedharan. “It is a purely found footage film, with shaky visuals. It's hard to explain. Manju chechi [elder sister] loved the entire idea and came on board.”
Warrier has recently dubbed L2: Empuraan in Hindi, the second of the triology of actors Prithviraj Sukumaran\u2019s triology set to release in all languages on 27th March. Footage is likely the first film where Warrier does not have to dub as she is mute throughout. For Lalitham Sundaram (Hotstar), she did do her own dubbing in Hindi. Four years back she performed with Madhavan in her unreleased first Hindi film Amriki Pandit.
In the piece, she remains silent. That role was supposed to be for a male actor, but then Warrier came in. "I was indeed fascinated to the concept of the film, it was captivating to me, and that Saiju and Shabna [Mohammed, writer] had brought to us gave me a new idea,” she says, “It was a split-second decision.” “Warrier had to go through actions training,” says Sreedharan, “We had workshops and training on set. There were no body doubles. It is all her. She was amazing. It was only one shot.” Warrier has done small action scenes in her films before, but “this sort of role was a first for me. Everything about the film was a first for me, ”she says. There are no lines spoken by Warrier in the film and he literally only notes. The answer for that also lies in the film. “That was one of the most interesting things about the character for me,” she says, “I guess this is quite different from many other roles that I get to play. Here is someone who doesn’t have a name, or any dialogue. You wonder where she came from, where she’s going. My character has that mystery to it.”
The film was shot by Cinematographer Natural Shinoz (Pranaya Vilasam) using the 1.89:1 aspect ratio.
The video has 120 scenes with 120 shots. quote, “there are no extra shots.” Sreedharan states that, “As a director, an editor’s perspective will always be primary.” Sreedharan adds, “Editing was a big relief. There was not a single deleted shot. It was all sequential.”
The second camera, wielded by the girlfriend in the movie, makes the storyline nonlinear. Sreedharan, for example, who admires The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cloverfield (2008) as some of the best found footage ‘mockumentary’ style films, further proclaims, “I will never do a normal movie. Getting out of boundaries is where the fun is for me.” “I do not want to spoon-feed the audience,” Sreedharan says. What I want is for them to grasp all the motions, plots, and intricacies. The solutions to all questions are in there,” he adds. The man “Footage' is different from existing Indian films,” notes Warrier, adding, “The life of a film will always be on the audience’s side in the end.”
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