Senna Hegde's award-winning Malayalam film, Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam to stream on SonyLiv on Oct 29

Filmmaker Senna Hegde's Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam, produced by Pushkara Mallikarjunaiah of Pushkar Films, is this year’s recipient of the Kerala State Film Awards’ nod for Best Second Film, as well as for Best Story. Written and directed by Senna on a modest budget in his hometown Kanhangad, the film is getting a straight-to-OTT release on SonyLiv, making it the second Malayalam film that the streaming platform has picked up to premiere.

Both Senna and Pushkara took to social media to announce that the film will stream on SonyLiv starting October 29. Talking about the film’s OTT release, Senna says, “The film’s digital partner Invenio Origins struck a deal with SonyLiv. Theatres in Kerala are opening only on October 25 and at 50% capacity and ‘n’ number of films are lined up till end of January next year. A slot may open up only in February or March, but then, our film has no star value, which is very important for theatres, especially after a sabbatical of a year and a half, they want star-oriented movies. Considering all this and that we’d have to wait another 3-4 months, we decided to take up the good offer that was on the table. It was time for us to let go and move on. Also, there are very few people who have probably heard about this film on social media, the rest of our target audience has no clue about Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam. We don’t have a face value – no offence to my actors, but there is no recognizable face out there. Pushkara and I were okay with taking it to OTT, because the ultimate goal is to make some money, so that the producer doesn’t lose much and, of course, make sure that everyone watches it. Luckily, we got a platform that is quite popular,” he says.

So, what’s film about? It has, after all, won in the best story category. “It’s as simple as the title – an engagement on a Monday. The story is set in the house of a man named Vijayan, in a middle-class family set up. The event is his younger daughter’s engagement, for which the near-and-dear ones of the family start arriving a couple of days earlier. The entire narrative follows the dynamics of the people, not only in Vijayan’s family, but also everyone who has come to partake in the ceremony. It’s a family comedy drama,” he says.