Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval is still not over Nna, Thaan Case Kodu. It is not because the film won seven awards at the Kerala State Film Awards 2022, but because when the award announcement came on Friday, he was in the middle of the shooting for his next film Sureshinteyum Sumalathayudeyum Hridayahariyaya Pranayakatha, which is a spin-off of Nna, Thaan Case Kodu, with Rajesh Madhavan and Chithra reprising the roles they played in the 2022 film.
“It was certainly a wonderful coincidence that when we are working on the spin-off of a film, it has won all these awards. What makes it sweeter is the fact that many of the technicians working in the new film have won awards too. When we finished Nna, Thaan Case Kodu, we had the confidence that we had made a film which would work with the audience, and it worked too. But, we did not expect an award jury also to give such acceptance for the film. It is not often that a jury seriously looks at the technical side of a satire,” says an elated Ratheesh in an interview to The Hindu from the film set.
The Best Character Actor (Male) award for P.P. Kunhikrishnan’s performance as a magistrate is another award which particularly gladdened him. Ratheesh had conducted 15 days of rehearsal shoots before the film to study the behaviour and dialogue delivery styles of the actors. Later, he rewrote the script based on this. Kunhikrishnan’s performance was something that was noticed in the sets too, as much as Kunchacko Boban’s. The spin-off, he says, will not be a political satire, but would draw on some elements from the original film, with Kunchacko too appearing in a cameo.
