Dhyan Sreenivasan: I was trying to mock alcoholism with Love Action Drama

“This film glorifies alcoholism” – this was apparently the feedback subscribed by many in the audience after watching Dhyan Sreenivasan’s debut directorial,

Love Action Drama

. The actor turned filmmaker is totally aware of it, as he started hearing the comment right after the film was censored.

“A censor board official after watching the movie told me that it doesn’t have any message,” says Dhyan. “The movie was a festival release and we wanted to entertain the audience and make some money in the box office. I don’t think it’s mandatory for every movie to have a message.”

He says he also got calls from his relatives. “They asked me if I was an alcoholic and if the movie was giving the right message to the people? With the movie, I was trying to mock the average middle class Malayali’s habit of consuming alcohol; not encourage it in any way. Alcohol is a part of our lives and if you have observed, the bars and beverage shops were probably the last to close when the coronavirus scare reached its peak,” he says.

Dhyan, however, concedes that Nivin Pauly and Nayanthara-starrer’s content might not have offered anything new to the audience. “I first told Nivin the story in 2016 and we had to wait for three years for Nayanthara’s dates because she was also busy with big films like Vishwasam, Bigil and Sye Raa. By then the content too would have become stale,” he explains.

Ask him about his father Sreenivasan’s feedback and Dhyan says, “We don’t talk much about films. For achan, it’s more about food and farming. Also, I am not sure if he got a chance to watch the movie in theatres. My last film he watched might have been Kunjiramayanam.”

On whether the film drew inspiration from his life, the actor says, “Not really. I think Oru Vadakkan Selfie had more personal instances in terms of my connection with achan and amma. When I was younger, I used to swindle achan out of lots of cash. All those encounters were portrayed well in that movie with Kuttettan (Vijayaraghavan) and Nivin.”

As of now, Dhyan says he would be starting work on his next directorial only next year. “I have a few acting commitments including Higuita, Adukkala: The Manifesto and Pathira Kurbana. I am also doing the remake of the Telugu movie Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya,” says Dhyan, who will also be writing the script of Pathira Kurbana.