Swasika’s Chathuram is not just about that erotic scene, it’s a relationship drama: Sidharth Bharathan

Director Sidharth Bharathan is ready with his next directorial Chathuram, which has Swasika, Roshan Mathew and Alencier Ley Lopez in the lead. The film’s trailer piqued curiosity, especially due to the intimate scenes that it featured between its lead pair.

In a recent interview, the director opened up about what the movie is about. “It’s about the equation between a man and a woman; it’s a relationship drama,” Sidharth told Club FM. “It has elements of a thriller also. The erotic scene is just part of the storyline.” The filmmaker also explained that it’s after a long time that Malayalam cinema is venturing into that genre again. “Before this, probably my father (Bharathan) was the one who had the courage to do it.”

On preparing for the role, Swasika, who plays the central character in the movie, told Mathrubhumi that reading and understanding script was what she did, apart from following the director’s instructions. The actress also explained that this was the first time that she had to do thorough homework to play a character. The multiple scriptreading sessions and discussions with the writer and director helped her get into the skin of the character, she said.

About the intimate scenes in the film, the actress explained that it’s mostly mechanical and there were times when the actors kept laughing. “How those scenes are filmed depends entirely on the director, it can come out aesthetically well or just plain bad… There were times that you’d forget what to say. Also, there would be so many retakes because of light or loss of camera focus, and then you would just wish that it ended soon,” she said.

The movie hit theatres on November 4, which also marked the release of Nivin Pauly’s comedy-entertainer Saturday Night and Asif Ali’s investigative thriller Kooman.