Balti: Musician Sai Abhyankkar’s Malayalam debut remuneration as composer revealed

Balti, the sports action drama led by Shane Nigam, was meant to be an Onam 2025 release, but with several other biggies also lined up, the makers decided to withdraw from that race. The film, written and directed by Unni Sivalingam will now hit theatres on September 26. Balti is a Malayalam and Tamil bilingual, featuring Tamil stars like Selvaraghavan and Shantanu Bhagyaraj, which has prompted comments that it is not a Malayalam film.

Speaking to Club FM, producer Santhosh T Kuruvill provided clarity on this stating that the film is set in a Kerala-Tamil Nadu border village, where the people speak a mix of both languages. In Malayalam, the film will have 60% Malayalam dialogues and 40% Tamil, while the Tamil version will be entirely in that language.

Balti is Shane Nigam's biggest film; Sai paid...

The Shane Nigam led film has, according to Santhosh, been made at a budget of around Rs 21 cr, the highest ever for the actor. It also marks the Malayalam debut of musician Sai Abhyankkar. Impressed by Sai’s work as a singer, Unni recommended him to the producer, who was also onboard with the idea to give the film fresh and different music, even though, Balti will be his first as a composer for a movie.

“Since signing up for Balti, in the next 4 months, Sai has been picked as composer for at least 14 other projects. He has been paid a little over Rs 2 crore for the score of Balti, which is a high remuneration for a musician in the Malayalam film industry,” revealed Santhosh.

Also read: Balti star Shane Nigam on the impact of Valiyaperunnal in his life, handling fame and more 

Why did he agree to pay that much though? “We were confident that having him onboard as composer would work well for us. For instance, the song Jaalakaari is a viral hit in Tamil Nadu. We’ve been getting an insane number of reels based on the song on social media. That’s the kind of output we were expecting from Sai and he delivered,” he said.

FAQs

Q: When will Balti be released in theatres?

A: According to the makers, the film will hit the big screen on September 26.

Q: Who is Shane Nigam playing in Balti?

A: The actor is playing Udhayan, kabbadi player, in this sports drama.

Q: Where was Balti filmed?

A: Filming for this bilingual movie took place in a number of places in Coimbatore, Palakkad, and Pollachi.