Mammootty to play a cop again in cinematographer Roby Varghese Raj’s debut directorial

It’s back-to-back police roles for Mammootty this year. The megastar, who is currently playing a cop in director B Unnikrishnan’s big budget thriller, will once again don the khaki and boots for cinematographer Roby Varghese Raj’s directorial debut, as per reports.

Roby, who had earlier cranked the camera for Mammootty’s The Great Father and Puthiya Niyamam, will be venturing into direction with the upcoming film, which is set to go on floors later this year. The film will also be produced by the megastar under his banner Mammootty Kampany, making it its third production after Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakam and Nisam Basheer’s Rorschach.

The cinematographer-turned-filmmaker had most recently worked on Jayasurya's John Luther, and Tovino Thomas and Keerthy Suresh-starrer Vaashi, which was directed by Vishnu G Raghav and is currently streaming on Netflix. Roby had also worked as the cinematographer for Love Action Drama, Vellam and Thattinpurathu Achuthan.

Meanwhile, Mammootty is expected to be busy with B Unnikrishnan’s thriller till the end of August. The movie, scripted by Udaykrishna, has a storyline that is set in several states and also is mounted on a big scale. The film has Amala Paul, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Sneha as the female leads while Tamil actor Vinay Rai, who had starred in Doctor and Etharkkum Thunindhavan, has been roped in as the antagonist. This is Vinay’s debut Malayalam venture.

Mammootty has also completed shooting for Lijo’s Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam, which is expected to run in the festive circuits before getting a theatrical release. The megastar will also be seen in a pivotal role in Surender Reddy’s Telugu action-thriller Agent, which has Akhil Akkineni in the lead. The film has Mammootty playing the role of a RAW officer.

The actor’s next release will be the thriller Rorschach, which is currently set to hit theatres on September 7. Sharafudheen, Grace Antony and Jagadish also play important characters in the movie, scripted by Ibilis and Adventures of Omanakuttan writer Sameer Abdul.