Premalu director Girish AD: I feel fairly confident about having a good romcom formula

Girish AD’s romcoms, Thanneer Mathan Dinangal and Super Sharanya, had a comic and yet realistic take on youth and romance, making them a hit with family audiences, and he hopes to recreate this same magic with Premalu, which has Naslen and Mamitha Baiju playing the lead pair.

“This film will have the same sort of realistic dialogues of my previous films, but with perhaps a bit more of a vibrant look; a bit Bollywood, if you like. The title is a nod to the fact that it is set in Hyderabad,” says Girish, who has co-written the film with Kiran Josey. “Unlike Chennai or Bengaluru, we’ve never really had a Malayalam film set in Hyderabad. So, we thought that would be something new and interesting for audiences.”

Thanks to the success of his earlier films, does he feel that he has a winning romcom formula? “When I made my debut, I wasn’t thinking about the box office. I just felt that the subject was interesting and would appeal to everyone. I hadn’t imagined it would become the huge success that it eventually became. After seeing the rushes of the new film, I feel confident that it will click, though, of course, you can never predict a film's box office prospects,” he says.

The cinematography of this film is by Ajmal Sabu, and editing by Akash Joseph Varghese. Music is by Vishnu Vijay with lyrics by Suhail Koya, who wrote the hit lyrics of Thaneer Mathan Dinangal.

Creating strong, relatable charactersThe women characters in Girish’s films, even the schoolgirl heroine in his debut, have been quite strong, with a strong contrast between the male and female leads. Girish says, “During the writing process, we are very aware of our own personality traits, but we want to create and project characteristics that are different from us and that we admire on to our characters. But I am very aware of the need to create characters who are flawed and do things that we do not agree with; only then, will they feel real and relatable. That is how I think the male and female leads in my films are,” he says.