Actor Dulquer Salmaan, who has back-to-back films in his kitty, has confirmed a new project. The movie will be his joint venture with Prathap Pothen, Anjali Menon and Rajiv Menon.
In the yet-to-be-titled Malayalam movie, Prathap Pothen will make comeback as a film-maker after about two decades. His last film was "Oru Yathramozhi" (1997) starring Mohanlal and Sivaji Ganeshan.
Anjali Menon will pen the script of the film, while Rajiv Menon will handle the cinematography.
Prathap Pothen took to Facebook on Sunday to announce his new directorial venture.
Below is the long post that he had attached along with a photo of Dulquer hugging him.
i met his father (Mammootty) in the early 80's when we travelled together to the us of a to shoot america america .....on meeting him i knew that he was going to go places ....i was doing both tamil films and Malayalam films then ...and he was an up coming actor ...i had come into a small windfall at that time my friend ravi mammen said now don't throw that money away why don't you invest that in mrf the share value then was 25 rupees a share ......i didn't listen to him ....i was thinking a foreign car harmones raging ...and wanting to show off i bought a ford escort ...ravi called my friend chacko ...and told him look at the freak (my nick name to both of them) his reply was a typical chacko reply can he afford it ....punning on the ford ........ravi said man you got a car which was a premier padmini why do u want do it ....so i told ravi you nothing this is show bizz....so he told me you are a fool ....and sure enough i was .......the 25 buck mrf share is worth 40000 thousand a share now .....thats how intelligent i was .....but i digress i bought that up because mamoooty wanted to drive the car to the airport (that time it was considered the epitome of success to have a foreign car) so proudly sitting in front seat showing off we drove to the airport to go to the us of a ...i say this because now he all the cars in the world while i was bouncing like a ping pong ball seeing failure after failure he went from strength to strenght the cars in the world ....while i had to hawk that to make my first film ...we never had a scene together in that movie nor in another one he recommended for in Malayalam ...but i knew then here was a man who was on his way to the top i remember him holding my chin and shaking it and telling my eyes and chin were the best features i had ...i had decided by then to get into direction ...while my fortunes dipped i had hawk all i had to make my first film ...mendum oru kaathal kathak kathai though it got me national award it was all down hill for me after that a broken marriage and no films i had to direct my second film ...which thank god i was able to do because of m.t vasudevan nair ...and vbk menon ...who was the producer .....things were getting better for me ....i knew at that time both he and mohanlal would become super stars ..i saw both their films and i realised how great they were .....but i digress ......i met mamooty again for seevalaperi pandi i wanted him to do the role but he was busy at that time and didn't have the dates .....he remains the only actor along with nasir shah who i wanted in a film as i had the luck to direct all the other greats ...mohanlal ....nadigar thilagam ....kamalhaasan ...satyaraj ...prabhu ....SO after years 20 years after yatramozhi when i got the offer to direct a malyalam film again ..i decided to get a dream team together ......Anjali Menon agreed to write the script ....rajeev menon agreed to do the cinematography and she the script came into shape ....dulqar was my choice ...not because he was mammoth's son ...but because i had seen ustad hotel and ok kamani .....and was captivated by him ...i got the same feeling that i had when i saw his father that he was going to head for greater things ....so i took a chance .....most actors in malayalam don't reply to your messages or calls since anjali had worked with him i send him a message ...the answer was prompt ....WOW i thought ....i have a great producer a great writer a great cinematographer ....he agreed to meet so we met at holiday inn ...i had met him briefly at the bangalore days function and he was humble and had a smile that could melt an iceberg in antarctica ...when i met him i found him extremely cultured and committed and vivek one of the brightest boys i have met who represented the producers was with me ....like a first time director i told him the outline of our story he listened carefully anjali had warned me that he was a thinking actor a guy who will question you till he was convinced a couple of questions and seeing my enthusiasm and commitment ....he agreed ...my heart became lighter .....i was hearing symphonies and seeing rainbows in short i was ecstatic ...not because of anything else other than the fact we spoke the same lingo having been bought up in wealth ...and studied in the best schools and colleges i knew he was the bomb we wanted ..a few days prior to that i had met mamooty at the app ovum veenjum function and he had told me my son told me you were making a picture with him and asked me how i was and i said what did you tell him...i asked......by this time my heart was pounding and what did you tell him i asked ...he said well i told him other the occasional bad words i use i was cool ....i heaved a sigh of relief ......i told him u never worked with me so why did you say that ...because as an actor i treat my cast as royalty ...he laughed .......i had told this to dulqar and i said see he hasn't worked with me i treat my actors as kings ......my set is full of laughter and fun because we prep a lot ...when he shook my hand and said he was on ...i knew it was the word of a gentleman and not that of others who say yes and then last minute pull out ..we took the pic ........but vivek gave me the gag order he saw dulqar down and came back to the room and in a dramatic gesture fell at my feet and said please don't post the pic on facebook ...till everything is final ...but i knew i had got the word from a man was pure ...straight forward .....i agreed .....now as we progress i told i putting the pic out its all confirmed ...and so its great to be able announce the hero of my film ...dulqar salman ...thank you dude ...lets kick ass with the film ....its only then i can direct your dad who i want in a film which is a bio pic ...and then i would completed my dream ....and after that i can go singing in the rain ...thank you dulqar ....thank you anjali thank you rajeev and the producers global ...prem and vivek my son ...who made this possible ......lets fly ....lets enjoy the making the film ..."
Meanwhile, Dulquer replied with another long post thanking Prathap Pothen:
Sorry this took some time. But been at shoot all day. First and foremost, many many thanks to Prathap (Pothen) sir for all the kind words. That note and his words are an example of his youthful energy and nature. And it's infectious.
I've always made sure to wait till my directors announce projects. So I know there are sometimes long periods of time where I reveal nothing about future projects and there is almost no news about my work smile emoticon ! But I've always been someone who's enjoyed mystery and suspense. So even when such an exciting prestigious project has been in the wings for sometime now, we've all been biting our lips and waiting for the right moment.
It gives me the utmost honour to be a part of Prathap sirs untitled next. The film is penned by my dearest Anjali (Menon) and shot by the first director I ever faced the camera with, Rajeev Menon. Global Media who's doing some exciting stuff including my present film with Rajeevettan (Ravi) are the producers.
The film will go on floors early next year once I finish some other commitments which will be announced in a similar manner smile emoticon I've never been more thrilled to be alive. Can't wait. See you at the movies !!"
The upcoming movie will be produced by Global United Media (GUM), which is also financing Dulquer's ongoing project with director Rajeev Ravi. GUM had recently set a record by launching the trailer of "Lord Livingstone 7000 Kandi" in the outer space.
Recently, Dulquer wrapped up the shooting of Martin Prakkat's film "Charlie", which has Parvathy Menon in the female lead role. DQ has back-to-back projects till 2016. Apart from "Charlie" and Rajeev's next, he also has Sameer Tahir's romantic action thriller and Mani Ratnam's Tamil movie in his kitty.
His previous films, "100 Days of Love" and "OK Kanmani", both of which had Nithya Menen as female lead, were a huge success at the box office.
