Actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran has explained both his personal approach to filmmaking and what he believes makes Malayalam cinema fundamentally different from every other film industry in India. Prithviraj made the remarks at the 16th edition of Expresso, held at Taj Lands End in Mumbai.

When Anant Goenka, Executive Director, Group, asked Prithviraj who in Malayalam cinema, between the production house and star, wins the commercial battle, the actor said he produces a significant number of the films he appears in through his banner Prithviraj Productions, and for the majority of those projects, he forgoes a conventional salary in favour of a financial stake in the film.

“With me, I’ve produced a lot of the films that I act in. And for most of the films I act in, I don’t take a salary. I have a stake in the film,” he said.

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“Even today, the one quality about Malayalam cinema that I love the most is that writers hold the power. It’s usually not a director or a production house or a manager who gets in touch with the actor or the star. It’s a writer,” the actor added.

Prithviraj Sukumaran then took the audience through the process step by step. A writer approaches an actor with a script or an idea. If the actor responds to it, the two of them then discuss which director would be the right fit for the material. They approach the director together. If the director agrees, the three of them then identify a production house to back the project. The entire chain begins with the writer, not the star, the studio or the money.

He explained, “A writer gets in touch with the actor and says, I’ve written something, would you like to listen to it? I listen to it, and if I like it, then we think, who would be great to direct this? Then we reach out to a director we think would be good for this. Then we decide who would be a good production house to back this.” The actor-filmmaker ended with a warning. “I hope we never lose that. I hope we never lose that process, that method. But I see signs of us losing it.”

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Prithviraj Sukumaran was joined by his Daayra co-star Kareena Kapoor and the film’s director, Meghna Gulzar, for the Expresso session. The conversation was moderated by Priyanka Sinha Jha, Chief Operating Officer, Screen Academy.

The 16th edition of Expresso was presented by AU Small Finance Bank in association with Taj Lands End, Mumbai, with BMW (Infinity Cars) as the Mobility Partner and Radico as the Celebration Partner.