Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham

Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham (English: Marakkar: The Lion of the Arabian Sea) is an upcoming Indian Malayalam-language epic historical film co-written and directed by Priyadarshan. Set in the 16th century Portuguese India, it is based on the battles of Kunjali Marakkars—the naval chieftains of the Zamorin of Calicut. Kunjali Marakkars organised the first naval defense of the Indian coast and safeguarded Calicut from Portuguese invasion for almost a century. The screenplay was co-written by Ani Sasi. The film was produced by Aashirvad Cinemas with Moonshot Entertainments and Confident Group as co-producers.

The film stars Mohanlal, Suniel Shetty, Arjun Sarja, Prabhu, Manju Warrier, Siddique, Mukesh, Nedumudi Venu, Siddique. Principal photography began on 1 December 2018 and concluded in March 2019. The bulk of the film was shot at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. The film is now going under post-production and is planning to release either by the end of this year or early 2020.

Cast

 * Mohanlal as Kunjali Marakkar IV
 * Sunil Shetty
 * Arjun Sarja
 * Prabhu
 * Manju Warrier as Zubaida
 * Mukesh as Zamorin
 * Siddique
 * Nedumudi Venu
 * Renji Panicker
 * K. B. Ganesh Kumar
 * Innocent
 * Santhosh Keezhattoor
 * Hareesh Peradi
 * Arjun Nandhakumar
 * Baburaj
 * Ashok Selvan
 * Fazil as Kuttiyali Marakkar
 * Nandhu
 * Mamukkoya
 * G. Suresh Kumar
 * Shiyas Kareem
 * Krishna Prasad
 * Keerthy Suresh
 * Harish Siva
 * Pranav Mohanlal as Young Kunjali Marakkar IV
 * Kalyani Priyadarshan

Production
Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham was originally planned by Priyadarshan with screenwriter T. Damodaran in 1996. But due to budget constraints it did not progressed, "back then, our industry [Malayalam cinema] size was very limited and most producers weren't ready to invest hugely in such big ventures", said Priyadarshan. Almost 18 years later in 2013, Priyadarshan revealed that his immediate projects are a Malayalam period film on Kunjali Marakkar with Mohanlal in the lead role for which the research works were undergoing and a Hindi film starring Akshay Kumar.

On 1 November 2017, Priyadarshan confirmed to The Times of India that he would start Kunjali Marakkar after completing a Hindi film and the ongoing research work would require at least 10 more months to complete. What was gathered until then was the information available to the public, so they had to look deeper into history, and also they had not decided on which Kunjali Marakkar Mohanlal would portray out of the four Kunjali Marakkars. He said the storyline he would come up would be a mix of facts and fiction as the information about many of the incidents happened during that era are unavailable.

Production design
Sabu Cyril was signed as the production designer,continuing his 28 year old association with Priyadarshan. Four life-size ships and a 200×200 metre tank were built at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. During the period of Kunjali Marakkars, ships were not made but bought from Egypt. A dozen other sets were also created for the film.

Filming
Principal photography began on 1 December 2018 at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. Cinematography was handled by Tirru. Co-writer Ani Sasi also worked as an assistant director in the film. Pranav and Kalyani shot few scenes early in the month. Mohanlal joined the sets later on 16 December. The principal photography lasted for 104 days. It was wrapped in late March 2019.

Music
Ronnie Raphael composed four songs for the film — one sung by K. S. Chithra, a duet by Vineeth Sreenivasan and Shweta Mohan, and the other two are a duet sung by M. G. Sreekumar and Shreya Ghoshal and another song by Zia Ul Haq.

Visual effects
For handling the visual effects of the film, Anibrain which is globally recognized for its partnership with Framestore has been signed. Framestore is known for doing VFX works in a large number of films including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In 2018, Framestore along with Anibrain won the Oscars for Best Visual Effects for the film, Blade Runner 2049.

Distribution rights
Phars Film bagged the film's overseas distribution rights.

Release
Priyadarshan said, “It’s a film that will need at least a year of post-production work. So, we are currently planning the release either by the end of this year or early 2020.”