Dileep's bail means the show will go on?

Eighty-five days in custody and four

bail

attempts later, Dileep was granted bail on Tuesday by the Kerala High Court. With the actor now no longer in jail, the filmmakers who have waited for close to three months to complete as well as begin their projects are seemingly breathing a collective sigh of relief just like the actor, his family, friends and fans.

Dileep was arrested in July while he was shooting for Rathish Ambat’s

Kammarasambhavam

. So, his immediate professional task — provided that the Mollywood associations that had revoked his membership pose no hurdles — would be to resume the shooting.

Rathish tells us, “He will obviously join our movie next. We have also waited for the past 85 days for him to be released. Let him be with his family for the next few days. He deserves that. We would be going to meet him only after that.”

The bail conditions though will have a bearing on how the team carries out the filming. “We can finish the shooting in 15-20 days. Also, the locations are scattered across Kerala but if there’s a restriction in leaving Ernakulam, we can erect sets. However, it’s too soon to even think about those plans till we meet him.”

Director K Ramachandra Babu, who had shot a week with Dileep for his film

Professor Dinkan

, has also welcomed the actor’s bail, calling it and the success of Dileep’s latest release

Ramaleela

“positive signs”. “We are now hopeful that the film will happen this year. We are looking forward to finalising the other details after we meet him,” he says.

Third in line could be a project close to Dileep’s heart, P Balachandrakumar’s

Pickpocket

, which will be produced by his brother Anoop. The director tells us, “A lot of our dreams were in that jail cell for the past 85 days. Many of us believe that he’s innocent and we had faith that he will come out.”

Meanwhile, director Siddique, who also has a movie with Dileep scheduled for Vishu 2018 release, is positive that the actor “will come back with a bang”. “The media and many others were not willing to wait till the accusations were proved in court and yet people stood by him. Ramaleela support is proof of that. Until he is proven guilty by the court, I am sure people will love him and his films, and he will always be the Janapriya Nayakan,” he says.