After a messy divorce that was played out in the public domain and left him shattered, director Priyadarshan finally came out of it with 2016's hit Oppam, pictured left.
"It has been a traumatic time for me," Priyan says. "I can’t even begin to describe what I went through. I stopped making films for three years. I couldn’t think straight. I felt I had lost my ability to make films.”
It was his friend and Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, who pulled Priyan out of his depression.
"He told me I had to get back to work, and not with another comedy. Mohanlal and I have done nearly 40 films together, many of them comedies. I could have easily done another comedy with him but he insisted we do something we haven’t done before," he adds.
Priyan chose to do a thriller.
"I have done so many genres of films in my career; I have done 91 films so far. But never a thriller. That’s how Oppam happened,” he says.
When Oppam became a box office hit, both Priyan and Mohanlal were relieved.
"It was very important for me to come back with a bang. Mohanlal was worried for me; he never needs to worry for himself," Priyan says. "Luckily, the film was a success and I was back in business -- even though movies are not a 'business' for me. My big moment of vindication was when Kamal Haasan called me and said he couldn’t believe I had made this film after what I had gone through in my personal life.”
Priyan cannot get over his leading man’s versatility. "Mohanlal can play anything. In Oppam, he plays a blind man. You have to see how natural he looks."
