Exclusive! Jeethu Joseph: All characters have the same importance as Mohanlal’s in 12th Man

A Mohanlal-Jeethu Joseph film usually comes with set of hype and fanfare. But for 12th Man, the makers have sort of dialled it down with Mohanlal himself telling us that no promotions have been planned. A chief reason for this is the movie’s genre; it’s a classic whodunnit film and even the film’s director Jeethu, who agreed to an exclusive interview with OTTplay, doesn’t want to speak too much about the movie.

Jeethu, who is collaborating with Mohanlal for the third time (discounting their yet-to-be-completed Ram, talks to us about the challenges of writing and shooting 12th Man and about its 12 characters that played by actors such as Unni Mukundan, Sshivada, Priyanka Nair and Saiju Kurup to name a few.

This is your second direct-to-OTT release after Drishyam 2, which was a huge success after it hit Amazon Prime Video last year. In that sense, did this project happen organically or was it conceived to cash in on that popularity that you and Mohanlal have in the digital space?

During the pandemic, we were working on a subject that we could shoot keeping in mind the prevalent restrictions. That’s how we mentioned this to (producer) Antony (Perumbavoor), who then pitched it to Lalettan. So, that’s how the project was greenlit. Most of the film is set in a resort. Also, this isn’t a thriller. It’s a mystery film like Agatha Christie’s and Sherlock Holmes stories.

Though Drishyam 2 released on OTT, it was a project that was made for theatres. But 12th Man was specifically conceived and executed for a streaming platform. How does it impact its making?

Whether you make a movie for OTTs or theatres, there isn’t a big difference. We would probably eliminate wider frames because it won’t have the desired impact when you watch these on your phones and portable devices. So, we opt for tighter frames. That’s probably the major distinction between making movies for digital platforms.

With this film, it’s also the first time that you have exceeded the days of planned shoot. Was it because of the huge number of artistes involved?

We actually could get the dates of all of them together and once we started the shoot in the resort, they would only leave when we had wrapped up. However, the rain and mist slowed us down; there were days we couldn’t shoot at all due to the climatic conditions. The mist that you would see in the film is real.

When you are doing a mystery with 12 major characters and one of them being a superstar, there’s always this tendency of the audience’s attention always been hogged by the star. Does that work as an advantage as the filmmaker doesn’t have to worry about too many red herrings?

In this movie, you won’t find the star being the centre of attention. In 12th Man, all 12 characters have distinct identities and are as important as Lalettan. That’s how the film is structured and scripted.

Tell us about the scripting process; in most mystery films such as these you usually don’t have more than 6-7 core characters. But in 12thMan, you are dealing with a dozen characters.

The film’s scriptwriter Krishnakumar KR had taken up that challenge. We got the basic idea from filmmaker and producer Sunir Khetarpal, who had backed The Body and Badla. We developed the idea and Krishnakumar had penned the screenplay. It wasn’t that easy; it took us some time, almost two years to complete the script. He wrote the first draft and then reworked it a lot of times. When you watch the movie, you would know that it wasn’t an easy film to write. It’s a bit complex. I can only talk more about it after the film has released.

Also read: Mohanlal, Prithviraj Sukumaran to team up again for a film helmed by Dijo Jose Antony?