Prithviraj Sukumaran talks about Bollywood's rough patch: 'Malayalam cinema is going through a great phase but...'

Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran on Tuesday said the Hindi film industry post the 1990s has been path breaking in taking Indian cinema to the world and regional language movies will forever be indebted to them for showing the way. Prithviraj, who has directed Malayalam cinema superstar Mohanlal in L2: Empuraan and also plays a prominent role in it, was in the national capital on Tuesday to promote the movie, releasing this Thursday.

Replying to a question on lessons that Hindi cinema, which is going through a lull phase, needed to learn from other industries, Prithviraj praised Bollywood and said every industry goes through different phases. "There is a lot for everyone to learn from everywhere. I understand the conversation and praise around Malayalam cinema off late. But make no mistake, it was not too long back when we were sitting across tables in Kerala and thinking, 'How is Hindi cinema doing this?' It was a time not too far ago when maverick filmmakers like Anurag (Kashyap), Vikramaditya Motwane and Hansal Mehta burst out on the scene and started making content which made us think 'wow'... Yes, Malayalam cinema is going through a great phase but these phases happen to every cinema periodically," the actor-filmmaker said at a promotional event of Empuraan.

Prithviraj said he would not be surprised that a couple of years later people would be praising films coming out of Bollywood once again. "But one thing that is most aspirational about Hindi cinema post the 90s is how you have taken your cinema to the world. Hindi cinema has been absolutely path-breaking in taking Indian cinema to the world and for people around the world to discover content that we make in the country. For all the regional languages, however pan Indian success we discover, we will forever be indebted to Hindi cinema for having shown us the way," he said.

Lucifer, the first installment of the franchise which is conceived as a trilogy revolving around Mohanlal's character of Stephen Nedumpally aka Khureshi Ab'raam, was a major critical and commercial success in Malayalam.

Prithviraj, who also directed the first part in 2019, has been actively promoting the film throughout the country but said the movie was not made keeping in mind the pan-Indian market. "This is not a film that is born out of the new found existence of the pan Indian market. This was always ideated this way. I really don't think pan-Indian success can be designed, it has to organically happen," he said, adding that they have been honest in their storytelling.

Touted to be one of the costliest productions in Malayalam Cinema, the film will release in IMAX also. "This film is becoming a big platform for filmmakers to come and prove themselves that we can do great films like this,” Mohanlal said about the film.

Asked about the uniqueness of Malayalam cinema, which is consistently delivering commercial and critical hits in recent times, Prithviraj praised the writing. "We always do films with writers and writing as the fulcrum of it," he said, adding that writers get more credit in Malayalam cinema than other industries.

The press conference was also attended by actors Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier and Indrajith Sukumaran. Apart from them, the film also features foreign actors like Jerome Flynn, Eriq Ebouaney and Andrea Tivadar. Written by Murali Gopy, and produced by Antony Perumbavoor, Gokulam Gopalan and Subaskaran Allirajah, the action thriller is also releasing in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. (With inputs from PTI)