poster of Mahadev’s GorakhpurBhojpuri film directed by Malayalam filmmaker Rajesh Mohanan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
At a time when Malayalam cinema is gaining national attention, a Malayalam director has gone north to make a Bhojpuri film. Director Rajesh Mohanan [Rajesh Nair] is directing Mahadev’s GorakhpurA Bhojpuri film, which will be dubbed in multiple languages.
Popular Bhojpuri actor and Member of Parliament, Ravi Kishan plays the lead role in the film based on Aghoris, worshipers of Lord Shiva, whose ascetic ways and religious practices are notorious and feared. “I was planning to make a Hindi film. That’s when our writer Sai Narayan came up with this topic. When we met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath regarding the project, he suggested that we can make it in Bhojpuri. He said that good films are not being made in the language. Since we had the government’s support and were working with a renowned Bhojpuri actor, we decided to film it in Bhojpuri,” says Rajesh, director of films like Escape from Uganda, Salt Mango Tree, Thrissur Pooram And eighteen hours,
The film will release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. Rajesh says that there is talk of releasing it in Nepali and Chinese languages as well.
Filmmaker Rajesh Mohanan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The cast includes Pramod Pathak, Rituparna Sen Gupta, Sushil Singh, Anil Rastogi and Uday Vir Singh. Malayalam actor-director Lal is playing the lead role.
Cinematography is by Arvind Singh and music is by Agam Agarwal. Produced by Pritesh Shah and Salil Sankaran in association with Ravi Kishan Productions, the film has been shot in Uttar Pradesh, Hyderabad, Kerala, Nepal and Istanbul. It is expected to release by the end of this year.