The talk of the town in the Southern film industry is without any doubt the sleeper hit ‘Manjummel Boys’ directed by Chidambaram S Poduval. The survival thriller based on a true story starring Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Ganapathi S. Poduval, Lal Jr. , Deepak Parambol and others is set predominantly in the “Guna Caves” aka “The Devil’s Kitchen’ in Kodaikanal.
‘Manjummel Boys’ has appealed to Tamil audiences much more than the Kerala counterparts due to the film paying rich tribute to Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan’s cult classic ‘Guna’ directed by Santhanabharathi. The psychological thriller written by Kamal was shot in 1990 in a dangerous terrain. The authorities shut down the path to the caves to avoid mishaps as the steep level is around 900 ft.
It is well known that Chidambaram Poduval and his team have been meeting up with several bigwigs of the Tamil industry including Kamal Haasan, Santhanabharathi, Ilayaraja, Chiyaan Vikram, Siddharth and Dhanush. He also met popular film financier Anbuchezhian that has triggered speculations in Kollywood. Also Read Dhanush’s son has already made his high-budget film debut?
It is reported that a few years back Anbuchezhiyan signed actor Dhanush for a new project but it never took off due to lack of a proper story. It is now said that the Gopuram Films owner during his meeting with Chidambaram asked him if he can collaborate with Dhanush for his next. When the sensational director agreed then a meeting was set up with Dhanush who also liked a storyline that he narrated. Kollywood insiders say that the Dhanush – Chidambaram Poduval project will take off by the end of this year. However there is no official word in this regard and the news has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Dhanush has currently wrapped up his multistarrer directorial venture ‘Raayan’ produced by Sun Pictures with A.R. Rahman scoring the music. The film costarring Aparna Balamurali, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sundeep Kishan, Kalidas Jayaram Dushara Vijayan and S.J. Suryah is expected to release in summer 2024.
Dhanush has also completed the shooting of his third directorial project ‘Nilavuku En Mel Ennadi Kobam’ starring Matthew Thomas, Pavish, Priya Prakash Varrier and Anikha Sirendran is also in postproduction. Dhanush is currently starring in the trilingual biggie ‘D51’ directed by Shekhar Kammula in which Rashmika Mandanna and Nagarjuna are playing the parallel leads.
