Pix: Nayantara's Bodyguard

It was with director Sathyan Anthikkad's Manassinakkare that Nayantara made her entry into Malayalam films.

Sometime later she shifted her attention to Tamil and Telugu. Now she returns to Malayalam cinema in Bodyguard, directed by Siddique. She plays Dileep's heroine in the movie.

"Bodyguard is a humorous love story but the comedy is not of a slapstick variety. Dileep's character is called Jayakrishnan, who hails from a traditional household, but has been involved in shady activities all along. In fact, he is a nice guy who is a kind of a local Robin Hood. He is also a great fan of legendary thugs in Malayalam fables like Kayamkulam Kochunni and Ithikkara Pakki.

"He is a college dropout, who likes to spend his time teaming up with certain goondas," says the director, who has a fascinating list of hits to his credit like Ramji Rao Speaking, In Harihar Nagar, Vietnam Colony, Godfather, Hitler and Chronic Bachelor.

Says Siddique, "Jayakrishnan has worked with a few local gangs and now he is the confidante of a rich man, played by Tamil actor-director Thyagarajan.

"There are several twists and turns in the story and soon after, he joins a college to complete his graduation. He had his own personal agenda to do so. We also have a suspense element here. Clad in a safari suit and dark glasses, he is a total misfit at the campus and the students start making fun of him. Ammu (Nayantara) is also studying in the same college," the director adds.

Dileep says, "my character is on a particular mission and he takes his job a little too seriously. He starts coming to college clad in a safari suit and thick, dark sunglasses."

He says that he has been experimenting with his looks in every film. "I love this funny get up," he says of his outfit in the movie.

According to Dileep, Bodyguard is a laugh riot and that he had real fun shooting for some of the sequences.

"There was this scene where I was explaining to my fellow gangsters about my experience as a student in the campus and they were all looking baffled. We all were laughing while reading the script," says the hero.

Nayantara, who is quite a sensation down south, had huge crowds waiting for her at all the shooting locales.

Dileep is all praise for his heroine and says that "she had done a dance number in Twenty 20 and has been a great co-star to work with."

Bodyguard has been completed in two schedules at Ottappalam and Kottayam.

Siddique plans to make Bodyguard in Tamil as well, with Vijay as the hero.

The Malayalam version stars Janardhanan, Cochin Haneefa, Harisree Asokan, Mithra Kurien and Seema G Nair among others.

Produced by Johny Sagarika, the film will hit theatres in November. The film has cinematography by S Kumar, lyricis by Kaithapram and Anil Panachooran, and music by National award-winning composer, Ouseppachan.