Heroines are as integral as heroes

Anil Radhakrishnan Menon has been slowly but surely charting his own course in Malayalam cinema, straddling both critical and commercial success along the way. He talks to us about his films’ curious titles, how he doesn’t distinguish between heroes and heroines, and why his latest is a tribute to nature.
North 24 Kaatham, Sapthamashree Thaskaraha and now LL7K.What’s the obsession for unique-yet-quirky titles?
It’s hardly an obsession. Each of those titles is relevant to the films. North 24 Kaatham, for me related to the direction of the state of mind that Fahadh Faasil’s character had to travel to gain that inner peace. Sapthamashree Thaskaraha was about seven thieves so that’s pretty evident. Lord Livingstone is the name of a fictional British company and 7000 kandi refers to the area of a forest - the setting of the movie. The number of actors in your movies seems to increase with every movie you make...
North 24 Kaatham was about an individual while my second film was about a group of individuals. The third one is about a community. Though it has eight main characters — Reenu Mathews, Kunchacko Boban, Nedumudi Venu, Sunny Wayne, Jacob Gregory, Bharath, Chemban Vinod and Sudheer Karamana— there are close to 160 people who are pivotal to the movie’s story.
Doesn’t it become a challenge handling more actors with every movie?
Of course. The challenging part when you have so many actors is that you have to give them equal space and equal importance. Thankfully I choose the actors after I complete the script so it becomes a bit easier when it comes to defining their roles.
Reenu Mathews had a small role in your last film and in LL7K also she is the only female cast among the eight leading characters. Actually Reenu will be there throughout the film. In fact, I don’t distinguish between heroes and heroines in my movies. They are as integral as the heroes. Swathi Reddy was the heroine in North 24 Kaatham. Reenu’s role in LL7K is something I don’t think any actress has ever done in Malayalam cinema.She does everything that the other seven guys do in the film.
In an interview with KT last year, Reenu had remarked that after seeing Sapthamashree Thaskaraha your father had asked you why you couldn’t show her as she was in real life.
Yes, she had been harping on that. I took my father's words as a challenge. In fact, I started LL7K with just one character, which was Reenu’s. I knew someone who was from the same profession and fictionalised it to suit the story.
What’s LL7K about?
It's a realistic fantasy. It's a story that may or may not be real. I am making this for nature. There has been a lot of things about deforestation and destruction of nature that has frustrated me.
Could you categorise your movies as offbeat cinema?
No. Both my movies ran well and made money. My focus has been to make commercial movies that are based on reality.