Director Devadath Shaji: 'Have heroes of three generations in Dheeran' | Exclusive

The director talked about his movie's actors and his decision to make a comedic drama his debut film in an interview with OTTplay.

Devaduth Shaji and Poster of Dheeran

One of the 2025 Malayalam movies that has generated enthusiasm among moviegoers since its announcement is Dheeran. This comedic drama, which will be released on July 4 marks the directorial debut of Devadath Shaji, who gained recognition as a screenwriter for Mammootty's Bheeshma Parvam. The director talked about his movie's actors and his decision to make a comedic drama his debut film in an interview with OTTplay.

'Have Malayalam heroes of three generations'

Devadath said he was thrilled about the opportunity to work with some of Malayalam's veteran actors in addition to the young performers in Dheeran. "I love Siddique-Lal movies like Godfather and Ramji Rao Speaking. The heroes of that era in Malayalam film are Jagadish, Ashokan, Vineeth, Manoj K Jayan, and Sudheesh, who are all part of the core cast of Dheeran. With their performances, Sidharth Bharathan and Arun Cherukavil were in the spotlight in the 2000s. Now, we have actors like Rajesh Madhavan," he stated. "Therefore, I have been fortunate enough to work with the main heroes of three generations of Malayalam cinema," the young director continued.

"The majority of the experienced performers have collaborated with well-known directors like Bharathan, K G George, and Padmarajan, thus it brings me joy to be directing the same actors as a debutante," he said.

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'Dheeran's plot had space for a lot of characters'

According to the director, the film is a humorous action drama that takes place in a small village in Malayattoor. "This movie's protagonist is a thoroughly grounded hero, not your typical one. An incident that occurred in my hometown in 2003 served as the inspiration for this plot's thread," he continued. Devadath went on to say that there was room for plenty of characters in this plot; all he needed to do was give it a suitable graph and position the characters appropriately.

"We dedicated a week to doing proper script reading sessions. During this time, the actors were able to have a clear picture of their characters," he remarked. The filmmaker stated that he had no concerns about their performances and occasionally offered suggestions regarding the characters' emotional and other characteristics. "All of these actors narrated their old stories on the set. We all spent as much time together as possible when we had free time," he continued.

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