The trailer of Instagraamam, an upcoming web series by Mridul Nair, promises a laugh riot. Apparently, the team has been collecting jokes to weave into the series.
Instagraamam is about a fictitious village, Andippara, its people and their idiosyncrasies. “To decode the title, it is about a village where people, irrespective of age or gender, are excellent at ‘instant’ and witty repartee. We’ve packed in situational humour based around events such as marriages, temple festivals and more. There is slapstick comedy as well,” Mridul says.
Eyeing OTT platforms, the team is in talks with some “leading names” to stream the content. “If it works, this will perhaps be the first Malayalam web series to have an OTT release. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Although the work on it was finished a few months ago, several factors have delayed its release. Since there is no precedent, there is little clarity regarding marketing of the series. Also, it is not easy to sell a regional product on OTT. However, we hope to stream it by September-October,” says the director.
Mridul Nair | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Mridul and J Ramakrishna Kulur, scenarists of Mridul’s debut movie, B.Tech, started working on the script of Instagraamam in 2018. “It was around the same time OTT platforms arrived in India. We had no clue who to pitch the idea to. So we shot two pilot episodes. Dr Leena S who runs Chennai-based production house liked the episodes, came on board as the producer and that’s how the project was rolled out,” says Mridul.
Ensemble cast
Set in and around Payyannur in Kannur district, the series boasts an ensemble cast with several senior as well as young artistes in Mollywood. Key characters in the series are Kaliyadathu Suku (Deepak Parambol) and his three friends — Society Dutt (Ganapathy), Padmarajan Andippara (Subhish Sudhi) and Puncture Sudhi (Shani Shaki). Among other actors are Arjun Ashokan, Balu Varghese, Alencier Ley Lopez, Ramesh Pisharody, Dinesh Prabhakar, Gayathri Ashok, Gilu Joseph and Ambika Rao.
Mridul himself comes in different get-ups. Sunny Wayne, Saniya Iyappan and Srinda are doing cameos. Many theatre artistes from Kannur are also acting in the series.
Ambika Rao and Kulappully Leela in a still from ‘Instagraamam’ | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
It has been planned as a 14-episode series of 25-minutes each. “We shot it like a movie. It was difficult with so many characters and instances weaved into the script. So we had additional scenarists; some were exclusively assigned to gather jokes popular in the area. My artistes also pitched in with inputs,” Mridul adds.
According to the director, his cinematographers, Arun James, Pavi K Pavan and Dhanesh Raveendranath have captured some breathtakingly beautiful spots in and around Payyannur. Neha Nair and Yakzan Gary Pereira have scored the music, while Manoj Kannoth has done the editing.
Early this year, Mridul had announced his second film, Thattum Vellattam, based on Theyyam, with Asif Ali, Soubin Shahir, Saiju Kurup and Jean Paul Lal in the cast.