Bollywood actor Mir Sarwar in M-Town Rahman starrer

Bollywood actor Mir Sarwar, who has acted in films such as Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Baaijan, Akshay Kumar’s Jolly LLB 2 and Kedarnath, is making his foray into Malayalam through debut director Charles Joseph’s

Samara

. But it is not too much of a departure for him, because the actor will be playing a Kashmiri Hindu, in the film that is set in Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir.

Speaking about the setting of the characters in the film headlined by Rahman, Charles says, “We wanted to keep it authentic, so while the story features a couple of Malayali families who are settled there, there are large portions in Hindi and bits in English and other languages, and we have used ‘foreign’ actors.”

Mir plays the antagonist in the film which deals with bio warfare. “What is interesting is that he is a brainy villain. He plays a scientist, right from his introduction scene, which is at a temple festival, we register that he is a negative character,” says the director, adding that while there were some difficulties with foreign actors, shooting with Mir was a breeze. “We had flown in a couple of foreign actors, but coordinating that with the looming pandemic proved very difficult, among other things. Mir was very cooperative. In fact, there was a fire stunt that we used a dupe for, but when Mir saw the shoot, he said he could have tried it himself,” says Charles.

Rahman plays a forensic investigator, whose job is a matter of discussion and curiosity among the other characters. “We leave an element of doubt about the nature of his work, which is revealed to only one character at the end. There is the hint that the story will continue,” explains Charles.
The film also has Sanjana Dipu of Moothon fame, playing a medico. “It is a performance-oriented role, and as she cannot read Malayalam, she had some difficulty in the first couple of days, but then she got into it and did a really good job,” he says.

The shoot of the film has been completed and the dubbing is set to start. “It will be some time before the film is ready for release, because we have some important graphics work to be done,” says Charles.