Empuran must do a KGF for Lyca and Antony

Will Empuran bring much needed moolah for Lyca Productions ?. The Kerala Film Producers Association leader Suresh Kumar says that the film’s budget so far is Rs 141 crores and Mohanlal the hero and Director’s Prithviraj salaries are not included. Film is produced by Antony Perumbavoor who is said to be Mohanlal’s alter ego and so Mohanlal salary could be the investment and probably Prithviraj too has joined in on profit sharing. Rest of the money is probably from Lyca and it was advertised as the company’s first foray into Mollywood. . Lyca cannot take the investment from Kerala alone and Empuran has to do something like KGF or Kantara. Antony was bitter over Suresh Kumar talking about the big risk that Empuran is taking. Suresh is childhood friend of Lal and has the distinction of being the Producer of his first film and sounded the clapboard for first shot featuring Lal maiden film. Anto Joseph like Antony is Mammootty’s alter ego and he has got together his hero and Mohanlal together in a film directed by Mahesh Narayanan Anto talking to OTT Play reasons - “Certain films, irrespective of artistes’ remuneration, help make the industry bigger,” he says. “For instance, Kantara came at a time when Kannada film industry was going through a crisis. As a maker of a film like KGF and that too with an actor like Yash, you would never expect it to recover its budget from Kannada industry alone. But the movie helped make the industry one of the biggest in the country. And soon after that you had Kantara.” To a query that Tamil films and other language films are getting figures in Kerala , Anto has this to say -“Let me ask this, if a Rajinikanth or a Vijay film releases in Kerala, we Malayalis go to theatres to watch them and give them record-breaking openings. But none of our Malayalam films get that. Our audience wait for reviews and good reports before doing that for our films,” he says. For Tamils and other language film viewers, what makes them take to Malayalam films in a big way ? What made Manjumel Boys and Premalu run in Tamil Nadu and Andhra/ TS ? Was it reviews ?. Was it the promotion gala ? Word of mouth alone. Pushpa 2 was nowhere in Tamil Nadu and so was Game Changer. If Antony Perumbavoor dream of Empuran turning into a KGF comes true, then only Lyca will benefit but also Malayalam film industry will attract outside producers and corporate firms. Film is releasing on March 27th. We can expect promotions to start in major capitals in South.