Prithviraj turns director with Lucifer; superstar Mohanlal will be the leading man

A day after Onam, the biggest news coming in from Kerala is that Prithviraj is going to direct veteran superstar Mohanlal in a film titled Lucifer. The film written by Murali Gopi, will be produced by Aashirwad Cinemas. Prithviraj tweeted around noon on Tursday, 25 September:

"LUCIFER" starring The Lalettan, written by Murali Gopy, produced by Aashirvad Cinemas will be my directorial debut! pic.twitter.com/m65YQTPzsV

— Prithviraj Sukumaran (@PrithviOfficial) September 15, 2016

It is definitely a big ticket announcement as Prithviraj is one of the biggest stars in Malayalam cinema and him directing superstar Mohanlal is out of the blue. A few days ago, Mohanlal’s Oppam released along with Prithviraj’s Oozham for Onam, and the fans of both actors went hammer and tongs at each other. Oppam garnered good reviews and went on to become the Onam box office winner by a mile, as Prithviraj’s Oozham carried mixed reports and failed to impress. Three days after Oozham released, Prithviraj took to Facebook to issue a gentle warning to his fans not to go overboard in condemning or defaming other stars to show their support to him. Prithviraj wrote: “I strongly believe that the box-office success of my film does not depend on the success or failure of other films which release along with it. And when you degrade another actor’s film it causes me a lot of pain and embarrassment. Kindly refrain from doing such things, as my fans have always been my pillar of strength.” So it has come as quite the surprise announcement that Prithviraj is going to direct Mohanlal. Lucifer was originally written by Murali Gopy for director Rajesh Pillai, who passed away in February. Pillai made the critically acclaimed hit Traffic and was said to have roped in Mohanlal for Lucifer. The film will be now directed by Prithviraj. The shoot details are yet to emerge as Prithviraj is currently committed to half a dozen projects. He is currently shooting for Jayakrishnan’s Ezra, Roshini Dinaker’s My Story and Jiyen Krishnakumar’s Tiyaan. Two other films are under pre-production, including RS Vimal’s Karnan. Mohanlal on the other hand is equally busy with three projects he has signed on for.