Vijay Sethupathi, Nivin Pauly to team up in 2018 director Jude Anthany Joseph’s mass entertainer?

Post the success of 2018, director Jude Anthany Joseph has already been hailed as a changemaker in Malayalam cinema. The filmmaker’s craftsmanship has been lauded, especially for pulling off a riveting disaster film with limited budget and enough to keep the audience in tenterhooks throughout the movie.

Even though it’s been less than a week since 2018, which has Tovino Thomas, Asif Ali and Kunchacko Boban, released, all eyes are now on the filmmaker’s next project. Jude, in a recent interview with The Cue, dropped an update.

Also read: Jude Anthany Joseph had also scripted a ‘mass’ cameo for Nivin Pauly in 2018 but dropped it from the final version 

“I have been wanting to work with Nivin again in a movie for some time now. This was planned before 2018. Nivin is someone who has supported me a lot. He’s a friend. He’s the reason my first movie (Ohm Shaanti Oshaana) went on floors, because he gave me his dates,” he said.

The director also said that he had talked with Nivin, following 2018’s release. “He said, ‘You have become a big shot now’. I told him that I want to work with him next. So, there’s a movie with Nivin on the cards. It will be a mass entertainer. I also want Vijay Sethupathi as part of the movie, and we are in the process of approaching him. If it happens, it will be great. It’s a commercial entertainer with action and comedy,” explained Jude.

Incidentally, one of the drafts of 2018 had Nivin also essaying a character of a bus driver. The character had a ‘mass’ intro and was supposed to show up when all hope had faded, and people were stuck in a place where the boats could not reach. Jude, however, decided to drop the sequence as he thought it would not go with the authentic feel of the movie, which is based on the 2018 Kerala floods.

Jude, however, also added that he has completed six scripts during the pandemic lockdown. “I also want to work with Mohanlal next,” he said.