Tovino Thomas and Roshan Mathew to begin shooting for Aashiq Abu’s period horror film Neelavelicham next

It’s back-to-back collaborations with Tovino Thomas for director Aashiq Abu. After teaming up with the Minnal Murali star for the drama-thriller Naradan, the filmmaker will next direct Tovino in Neelavelicham.

The period film set in the 1960s, is based on Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s novel of the same name. While the text was also the base for Bhargavinilayam, which was the Malayalam film industry’s first horror movie that released in 1964, Aashiq in an earlier interview with OTTplay had told us that the upcoming venture will be the creators’ take on Basheer’s text.

The film, which was first announced last year, has already had several casting changes. While Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kunchacko Boban were first announced in the lead, they were later replaced by Tovino Thomas and Asif Ali, respectively, due to the formers’ date clashes with their current projects. Asif too had to opt out, leading to Roshan Mathew taking up his spot.

Rima Kallingal plays the female lead in the movie, which also has Shine Tom Chacko in a pivotal role. The movie, which is expected to go on floors soon, has Girish Gangadharan as its cinematographer and Bijibal and Rex Vijayan handling the music department. Recently, Aashiq had shared a post, stating that the auditions for several other roles in the film had concluded.

Meanwhile, Tovino has just wrapped up shoot of Khalid Rahman’s festive entertainer Thallumaala, which had Kerala and Dubai as its main locations. The film’s producer Ashiq Usman had stated that the film's pre-production lasted one and half years and it was shot over a period of 102 days. The makers had also released the first look poster of Tovino’s character from the film, which has Kalyani Priyadarshan as the female protagonist.

Tovino has also completed shooting for actor Vishu Raghav’s directorial debut Vaashi, which has Keerthy Suresh as its female lead. The movie is expected to hit theatres soon. Tovino and Aashiq Abu's latest release Naradan is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Also read: Tovino Thomas, Dijo Jose Antony’s ‘mass’ entertainer Pallichattambi is still on: S Suresh Babu