Asif Ali’s A Ranjith Cinema is an urban romantic-thriller

Asif Ali, who completed 11 years in the film industry a few weeks ago, is now picking projects that lets him do something different every time. His latest film, which is titled

A Ranjith Cinema

, promises to be one such.

On the movie, its debutant director Nishanth Sattu tells us, “Asif’s character Ranjith has a psychological breakdown and if he and his family totally recover from the trauma is the crux of the story. It’s a family-oriented romantic-thriller; It’s a commercial entertainer that travels through all these genres.”

Ask him if it has any connection to director Ranjith because of the film’s title and the filmmaker remains non-committal. “It’s not the typical ‘movie within a movie’; but all I can say is that there is a movie in it,” he says.

Nishanth, who has been in the film industry for the past 15 years as an associate director to Shafi, Amal Neerad and Santosh Sivan, had previously worked with Asif in

Bachelor Party

. “Him being in the same group as mine, there’s an ease of communication. Because of our friendship, he was accessible to me to pitch the script,” he says, revealing why he picked the actor for his directorial debut.

Apart from Asif, the film will also have three more young stars in important roles. On when the movie will go on floors, Nishanth says, “The story evolves in an urban backdrop and so we will be shooting in the cities. We haven’t decided on location as yet, but we are planning to start the shoot only after the pandemic.”