Anurag Kashyap's 'debut Malayalam film' to star Nivin Pauly: Moothon first look draws praise

When news broke in November 2016 that Aanand L Rai had signed Anurag Kashyap for two films under his banner, Colour Yellow Productions, we admit to feeling a thrill — what would the Tanu Weds Manu Returns 2 director and Kashyap come up with. Not too many details were revealed, except that one of those projects might possibly be a small-town love story set in Uttar Pradesh.

The Indian Express quoted Rai as saying, “He (Kashyap) is one of my favourite directors. I always wanted to collaborate on and do something (with him). Now that we have got an opportunity, we are doing it.”

While neither director has revealed much about those projects in the weeks since, it emerges that their first official collaboration will be for a Malayalam film directed by Geetu Mohandas and starring Nivin Pauly.

While Rai is producing Moothon, Geetu Mohandas shared in a Facebook post that Anurag has helped with writing the dialogues.

Anurag Kashyap re-shared Geetu's post with the words: "Geetu Mohandas's awesome awesome script is going on floors soon and proud to say it's my Malayalam debut... yay!"

A slew of congratulatory messages poured in on social media, including from Dhanush, who said: "All the best to my most favourite Aanand L Rai (he worked with the director on Raanjhana), my good friend Nivin and Geethu Mohan Das for this project. Looks very interesting."

Moothon's poster/first look which was released by Geetu Mohandas along with the announcement, has already earned Nivin Paulya fair bit of praise. Nivin, who started out as the quintessential chocolate boy hero in films like Bangalore Days has slowly moved towards a different avatar, as in Premam. With Moothon — in which he sports a rather rugged look, complete with a scarred brow and piercings — the transformation seems to be complete.