Exclusive! Is a prequel to Paka in the works? Here’s what director Nithin Lukose has to say

Starting his career as a sound designer on a number of films, Nithin Lukose ventured into filmmaking as a director with his feature debut, Paka (River of Blood), which he also wrote. Set against the lush plains of his hometown of Wayanad, Paka opened to a stellar reception, even being selected as an entry at last year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film had its OTT release on Thursday on SonyLIV.

Speaking to OTTplay, the director opened up about the inspiration behind the film, his plans for a prequel to the film and his working relationship with Anurag Kashyap, who co-produced Paka.

Excerpts from the interview:

Your directorial debut Paka is a film that was inspired by stories of your hometown of Wayanad. Although the film revolved around a story with strong ties to Wayanad and its roots, Paka achieved international recognition, being selected as an entry at the 2021 TIFF. Why do you think the film, essentially a native story, had such international appeal?

I graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune in 2014, after completing my course in sound design. Although I’d worked on some films, I always aspired to make a film of my own some day, and I used to write. You definitely need to build connections if you want to be a filmmaker, and once I was in a position like that, I decided to work on my own film when I was in my hometown.

When I was in my native place, I happened to witness a ‘palli perunaal’ in 2019, after a gap of almost 5-6 years. I’d told a friend that I just had to make a film set against the backdrop of the festivities, and I went in search of stories from my hometown. That’s how I came across the story about a river here, where a lot of people used to die after getting caught in its currents. At times it would be hard to even recover the dead bodies, in which cases an expert diver would be called. Jose was one such expert diver, the thick moustachioed character who also makes an appearance in the film. I was inspired by these stories for the film’s script, as well as by the stories told to me by my grandmother. She had told me tales of the family feuds that took place in the area when she migrated to Wayanad. So Paka’s story developed from these tales.

In Paka, you have chosen the river as the central witness to the events and bloodshed that takes place in the story. Was this done because of the stories you’ve mentioned, about the deaths that happened in the river, or was there any other reason?

The river is definitely an important character in Paka, and is based on the real incidents that happened in it, where people still die even today. The river has even bore witness to several political killings where people killed their rivals and dumped the bodies into the river tied in sacks. There was even a phrase based on such killings that people used to use as a threat, saying they’d kill you and dump you in the river (laughs). Using the river as a character in the film really helped with the story, and I think that was part of the reason for the film’s international appeal.

There are also other instances in the film that parallels reality. Many of the actors in the film are real people from my hometown.Perhaps the real people played the roles in a much more believable way than if the same had been taken up by actors instead. The blend between reality and fiction would have been noticed. I think all these things really factored in as to why the film was selected at TIFF, as these made the film seem much more authentic and believable.

You’ve spoken about how you went in search of a lot of stories for the film. In the process, were you able to explore and get a better understanding of your roots and personal history?

Oh yes, through the stories my grandmother told me. I’ve even thought of doing a prequel to Paka based on the stories my grandmother told me and her history. She came to Wayanad in 1956. I’d given a lot of thought to the prequel’s story and had begun writing it. The intriguing stories have a lot of potential.

Would the prequel revolve around the grandmother character’s story?

Yes. The story would definitely try and explore the days of her youth. In the film, my own grandmother played the character.

Was there a particular reason that you made the character of the grandmother the one who incited the violence in Johnny and Paachi’s family?

Of course the character had good reason for wanting vengeance. She had made a shocking revelation about how she caused the death of a person within the family who refused to give in to her violent tendencies. The grandmother is a person who had to face a lot of things in her life, some of which are unforgivable. The spirit of vengeance is so strong within her that it is one of the reasons that she refuses to die, at least not without bringing the downfall of those who brought her grief. The root of the feud in the story is not actually something that the younger generation caused, it was passed down to them by the older generations and the latter’s refusal to move on. The younger generations thus find themselves stuck in the loop of never ending violence.

There may be several people like the grandmother in the film,who hold on to things and repeat patterns. Some of the things they say may seem relevant, but more often than not, they seem to air their dissatisfactions with the way things are. Keeping these things in mind, I decided to present the character as an antagonist.

Throughout the film, we never get to see the grandmother’s face, which was a conscious decision on your part. Why did you choose to do so?

In one of the first edits of the film, there was a scene where the grandmother’s face was shown in one shot. But in the final edit we decided to remove that shot. I believe it was Anurag Kashyap who suggested that be done. In reality, the grandmother has quite an adorable face, but the things she does are very ruthless. So the audiences might already have imagined an image of her in their minds, which is why we decided to not show her face.

Violence is a recurring theme in the film. However, it is never depicted in a graphic way. Was that also deliberately done?

We felt no need for that. If we could make the audiences feel the violence rather than show it to them, that would be much better. Depicting violence, with a lot of bloodshed is easy. We were inspired by several films in which violence is not shown explicitly, but its effects were felt. Rather than show it visually, we also chose to use sound to depict it as well.

Your next project is Pankali, which you’ve described as a relationship drama that centres around a riot? Does it hold any similarities to Paka?

Pankali is also an international co-production like Paka, but it is a completely different story.

Anurag Kashyap is also a co-producer of Pankali. How would you describe your working relationship with him?

Anurag and I do meet each other when I go to Mumbai, we exchange messages. When I pitched Pankali’s story to him after Paka, he liked the idea and suggested a collaboration yet again. The film was selected for the 20th Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum under in-development projects, one of the three Indian films selected this year. Pankali is a festival oriented film, so I decided to gradually develop it after seeking out mentors. We might start shooting for the film from next year onwards, focussing on the writing, mentoring process of the project this year. The film might be shot in locations in and around Kozhikode, although nothing has been finalized as yet.

I'm also developing a few commercially viable Malayalam films as well at the moment. I'm also trying to develop a web series.