Bethlehem Kudumba Unit was always sold to be an age-gap comedy between Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju. In the film, Nivin Pauly is said to be 13 years older than Mamitha Baiju. They play the characters Justin and Ashley respectively. But how did director Girish AD and his co-writer Kevin Josey to arrive at this specific age-gap between them? Would the film have become less effective with a shorter gap or a lot more weirder if the gap were extended?
“We were sure it had to be over 10 years between them,” says Girish in an exclusive interview with THR India. “At maximum, she could be 22 years old and that was the upper limit. But he could be much older... as long as he was above 35.“
He adds, “But it's also not that it would have worked for any age; he couldn’t have been more than 50! That would have been creepy.”
Girish says the idea was to make sure people did not feel uncomfortable upon seeing them both as a couple.
“It’s a narrow number, actually. The confusion was there. We were torn between making them look good together on-screen, but also for the age gap to be obvious for the conflict to work."
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has already collected over ₹80 crore in its opening week and is all set to become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of the year. The film released alongside the Prithviraj-starrer Khalifa, which opened to mixed reviews. Girish is also known for directing the successful Malayalam comedy Premalu (2024), which also starred Mamitha Baiju.