At a promotional event, a clip from which has been circulating online, Malayalam filmmaker Nahas Hidhayath took to the stage to fondly recall the beginnings of his association with Dulquer Salmaan.
Speaking to a crowd about the importance of dreaming big, Nahas recalled a moment from 2016, when he travelled to Ernakulam to watch the shoot of Dulquer Salmaan’s Kammatti Paadam. When he reached Rajeev Ravi’s sets, he learnt that Dulquer wasn’t shooting that day; the team was instead filming scenes featuring the actor who played the younger version of his character. Disappointed that he wouldn’t even get a glimpse of his favourite star, Nahas decided to stay on. He ended up becoming one of the hundreds of extras in the day’s shoot — little knowing that, years later, he would return to Dulquer’s sets as the director of I’m Game.
“If I can dream of making such a film, anyone else can,” he concluded his speech in a real-life fairy tale that can rival mass moments from most commercial films. Ahead of the film's release today, the director, along with his crew and music director Jakes Bejoy, posted a team picture with the caption that read, “Locked”. What adds to the intrigue of the film has been the manner in which so little of the plot has been revealed — a statement Dulquer himself made in an interview in an aim to protect its fantastical nature.
This fantasy element is another reason why Nahas feels so close to his film. His first film, RDX (2023), an action-based mass film, became a blockbuster, and he became one of three Malayalam movie directors to score a ₹100 crore film with their debut. “But the stress and tension are just the same,” says Nahas, in a brief conversation with THR India, a day before the release of I’m Game.
If with his first film the struggle was to create an identity of his own, he calls the biggest challenge of a second film to be able to maintain the same identity that came with the first hit. “The expectations and the responsibility to match them is what is very different about this time.” He feels overjoyed that he was able to fulfil the dream of making a fantasy subject he’s held on to for long but feels that the dream will only be complete once it reaches the audience the way he had imagined it would.
“Among the most nerve-racking parts of this is the curiosity with which the audiences will buy into the fantastical element of it. It is a world of make-believe, and if we’re able to get the viewers convinced about this aspect of it, I’m sure they will enjoy the rest of the film.”