Valatty: A Golden Retriever and Cocker Spaniel play the leads in this puppy love story

Mollywood has had quite a few popular movies that had animals in important roles, but now, it’s all set to have a movie entirely set in a dog’s world. According to the makers of the upcoming Mollywood film Valatty, it is probably the first film in the country to tell its story through dogs – with canines of different breeds playing the hero, heroine, villain, sidekicks and more, and the humans are relegated to minor supporting acts.
The film’s director and debutant Devan tells us, “Valatty is a story of romance. We are using real dogs and no VFX at all. For the past one year, we have been training the pups cast in the film. We had a 2.5 acre area in Kollam, where the trainers and those working on the film including me lived in a house with these pups, so that they were trained and also got acquainted with us. All of us are dog lovers, so we want to make this film in the most naturally possible way, by giving them their space and time.” The crew plans to start the shoot next month.
Tomy, a Golden Retriever is the hero of the film, while Amalu, a Cocker Spaniel, is the heroine. An indigenous breed canine named Karidas and Bruno, a Rottweiler, play the other major characters. Devan says, “Those were their names we chose for them when they were pups and we are using the same in the film too.”
The team is planning to start the shoot next month. “The story is not region specific, so we are going for neutral locations,” says Devan. Ask him who would be dubbing for the canines in the movie and he says, “We can’t reveal that now.”
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the director says that he team will have a small schedule first with minimal crew and indoors. “We will have to go slow as this is a different kind of movie involving dogs. Also, we will plan the next schedule only after observing how the first schedule turns out,” he says.