Raw crime scenes were this film's USP

A return on investment to the tune of 7:1 means the project has been a blockbuster. Mollywood has had many such achievements, attractive enough for production houses from all over India to launch their ventures based on such original successes. The 2017 Malayalam film 'Angamaly Diaries' has so many highlights to its credit, fully justifying the above statement.

Firstly, it had launched 86 debutantes at one go in the film, which is a first for any film industry in India. The film too had a volatile mix of emotion and crime which appealed to the youth in an overwhelming manner and which guaranteed the success of the film, made at a nominal cost of Rs 3 crore and earning close to Rs 20 crore as its run came to an end.

Remade as 'Falaknuma Das' it starred the one-film old Vishwak Sen, who has held on since then to have a slot for himself in Telugu cinema. The raw, pulsating action which formed the core of the Malayalam original was reprised in the Tollywood version to a considerable extent. Vishwak had his deep connections in the film industry and unlike the Kerala film, his film was blessed by one of the biggies, D Suresh Babu who presented the film for the Telugu market. It is notable that his first film ' Vellipomakey' was bankrolled by 'Dil' Raju, one of the pillars of the film world in Hyderabad.

The theme of the film which is what happens when a man has uncontrollable aggression was sustained decently enough but the box-office success was not as thunderous as the original, which had the surprise factor as its advantage. Though both films had unknown faces, the willingness of the Malayalam film audience to accept newer trends and story lines was more evident than the Telugu film fan who is quite often blamed for being status quoist and uni-dimensional in their viewing preferences.

Lijo Jose Pellisserry, the director of the Malayalam version shot up to fame with his work while the Telugu film was helmed by the hero himself, a huge burden for a newbie, one should say. Pellisserry had by then bagged many State-level Awards too for his five films, having begun his career in 2010. Vishwak to his credit went on to star in the 2020-success 'HIT: The First Case', remade subsequently in Hindi starring Rajkummar Rao.