Indian Panaroma: Team ‘Veeram’ meets the Media at IFFI 2016

By: Sonup Sahadevan

‘Veeram’, an  set in 13th century Kerala and based on the ballads of North Malabar, narrates the tale of a fearless, mighty and brave Kalaripayattu warrior Chandu . The movie is a trans-creation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and flawlessly portrays the greed for power and the extent a person goes to attain them.

The character has been convincingly played by Kunal Kapoor, depicting Chandu’s story of rising to glory and finally falling apart by greed and ambition. Veeram has been simultaneously made in and in English with the same title. It was the opening film at the BRICS Film Festival 2016 at Delhi.

Speaking to the media, Director of the film, Jayaraj dedicated this film to the legendary warriors of Kerala. He also mentioned that both the actors Kunal Kapoor and Divinaa Thackur struggled a lot to learn the nuances of the martial art.  He further said that he is planning to release this film commercially in mid of January and also targeting the Berlin Film Festival for screening of the film. The movie will soon be released globally.

Chandramohan D. Pillai, Producer of Veeram, said that this is his first project and he is happy that this film could be part of the IFFI, 2016. As a producer, he added, he is lucky to work with Jayaraj and it is his friendship and confidence in Jayaraj that convinced him to be producer of the film.

Kunal Kapoor, lead actor of the movie, said that it was his first action film and was very difficult to shoot in 3 different languages at the same time. Veeram was no different than working in any other Hindi Film. What matters is that how passionate one is to shoot the films, he added.

Divinaa Thackur, lead actress of the film, said that she is honoured to be part of IFFI 2016. She further emphasized that Veeram is a piece of art and there are many technical aspects in this film. She also said that Kalaripayattu is an art which she has trained in for the last 4 years.