Unni Mukundan confirms Meppadiyan still on track for January 14 release despite Omicron threat

While Dulquer Salmaan had earlier today announced that his movie Salute will be postponing its release, Unni Mukundan confirmed that his debut production Meppadiyan will hit theatres on January 14, as initially announced.

An hour after Dulquer had shared that Salute will be missing its January 14 release date owing to the COVID-19 situation and Omicron threat, Unni posted, “Like I said, January 14th is Meppadiyan”, while sharing the link for the movie’s online booking.

Currently, Meppadiyan and Dhyan Sreenivasan’s investigative thriller Sathyam Maathrame Bodhippikku are the two films scheduled for January 14 release. Salute is the first Malayalam movie to defer its release owing to the rising cases due to the Omicron variant. SS Rajamouli’s RRR and Ajith’s Valimai are some of the much-anticipated films that had earlier postponed their release dates.

It’s still unclear whether other big Malayalam movies such as Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Hridayam and Tovino Thomas’ Naaradhan would follow suit. As of now, there is no official announcement regarding the postponement of these movies.

Meanwhile, Meppadiyan is touted to be a family entertainer, directed by debutant Vishnu Mohan. The movie, set in the 2000s, has Unni playing a workshop owner named Jayakrishnan and revolves around a series of incidents that happen in his life.

The film has Anju Kurian playing the female protagonist. Indrans, Saiju Kurup, Major Ravi, Lalu Alex, Vijay Babu, Nisha Sarang and Shanker Ramakrishnan are also part of the cast of the film, which was shot in live locations across Kottayam, Pala and Erattupetta during the pandemic. The movie had wrapped up shoot in 2020 and had even got the clearance from the censor board early last year.

Meanwhile, Unni will also be seen in Prithviraj Sukumaran and Mohanlal-starrer Bro Daddy, which will be streaming on Disney+ Hotstar from January 26.

Also read: Dulquer Salmaan’s Salute release postponed, first Malayalam film to defer release due to Omicron threat