Kathanaar: Jayasurya's VFX-heavy fantasy thriller o be shot in a modular floor spanning 36 acres in Ernakulam

Malayalam star Jayasurya has been getting into peak physical shape for his role in director Rojin Thomas’ Kathanaar. The upcoming movie, which is touted to be the most expensive movie in the actor’s career, is a fantasy thriller that will be shot using virtual production techniques.

The latest we hear is that the team is set to erect South India’s largest modular floor over an area of 36 acres in Ernakulam for the shoot of the movie, which is set to begin next year. Jayasurya had confirmed the news to Can Channels recently.

With several movies using virtual production techniques being announced in Malayalam the past year, the upcoming facility, which will be bankrolled by Gokulam Productions, will be a huge milestone for Mollywood, which has always found it tough to make fantasy movies as compared to other industries.

In an earlier interview with OTTPlay, Jayasurya had talked about why he decided to allot over a year for the project, which will mark his second collaboration with Rojin after Phillips and Monkey Pen.

“When Rojin told me about certain scenes, I was unable to visualise them. We have been attuned to Hollywood films but when people narrate those kinds of stories in Malayalam, we don’t instantly conceive those visuals in our mind as such films have not yet been made in our industry. Here, everything is made in limited budgets and so our vision is also restricted,” he said, adding that Rojin shows him sketches from pre-viz and other techniques to make him understand better.

The movie revolves around the legend of the priest named Kadamattathachan who is believed to have possessed preternatural powers, and to show this on screen convincingly, the makers will rely heaving on motion capture techniques and visual effects, said the actor, who will next be seen in Godfy Babu’s Enthaada Saji along with Kunchacko Boban.