It's Mollywood calling for Nayika Nayakans

Although the talent hunt show 'Nayika Nayakan' ended on a grand note, it seems the buzz around the show has not died down.

While Darsana S Nair and Shambhu Menon bagged the title award, all the 16 contestants of the show have managed to find their space in Mollywood. Yes, even before the show ended, many contestants have already got movie offers.

Venkadesh VP, one of the simple contestants of the show had been cast as the lead actor in a Telugu movie. The untitled movie will be directed by Veeranji. Interestingly, he had also bagged another Malayalam movie 'Das Capital' directed by Visakh Warrier.

Meanwhile, Abraham Chunkath, the producer of the show, revealed that movie offers started coming in right after the first week the show was aired. “Each and everyone were committed to the show. They knew that Nayika Nayakan was an institution than a mere reality show. It helped them shape their acting career and their focus was more on being on the show than the pospect of likely offers,” he said.

The cinematic experience

Another interesting project is 'Ottam' that has come as a double surprise for participants Nandu NC and Roshan Ullas. The duo will be seen as lead protagonists of the action-thriller movie directed by Zam and produced by Thomas Thiruvalla.

And the action heroes Nandu and Roshan attribute it to the grooming sessions given by the show. Fight choreographer Ashok Gurukal, who has about 35 years of experience in the film industry, was all the more happy to train the participants of the show.

“When I called up Ashok Gurukal, he didn't hesitate to join us. He trained the participants just like he used to in the movies. This was not a movie and we just had 15-20 minutes of videos. But even then he wanted the best for the contestants. All the dances were choreographed by Satheesh master. It was more like a give and take for all of them. There were chroma shoot, outdoor shootings, staged dramas, single shot songs etc. Everything was done with a calculated research, just like things happen on a movie sets,” recalled the producer.

Interestingly, during the grand finale of the show, director Lal Jose asked dance choreographer Satheesh master to choreograph one dance for his upcoming movie 'Thattinpurathe Achyuthan' to which he readily agreed.

“I am glad that the show could witness the growth of many artistes. Since cinema was the basic subject of the show, we made sure that each of the contestants should be well trained for movies. The single-shot videos were perhaps the biggest challenge – right from the technicians to the actors, everyone had to be well prepared. And if mistakes happened, we had to shoot the entire thing from the beginning. So many videos had gone viral and were widely shared on many groups on social media. Even the names of each rounds was a collective decision. Be it the names like Mrigaya, Aparan, Celluloid - everything was named as a tribute to films,” he said.

Shaping the show

However, having acted in a couple of films, Abraham pointed that it was the real hands-on-experience that helped him shape the show.

“Many from the industry had called me personally and shared their views about the show. There came many appreciation, criticisms and suggestions as well. Many even told me their favourites from the show. I don't think there have been a TV show which was so closely followed by movie buffs,” he said.

Popular anchor

Another persona who got big fan followers through the show was host Dain Davis, aka DD. With his spontaneous comic dialogues and hilarious gestures, he won hearts of family audiences. It was the first show that he anchored along with Ashwathy Sreekanth.

Talking about DD, the producer said, “I had just seen his few mimicry performances on the programme Comedy Circus. I just had a random thought why not he be the host.

His sincere and genuine approach attracted me. I felt he could easily connect with audience and had an inborn talent to play and act around. Although he was not confident initially and had to take lots of retakes in first schedule, he overcame all of that and made a colourful stage for the show. Known for his positive attitude and dedicated mentality, now it's hard for me to imagine a Nayika Nayakan without DD.”

Recently, Lal Jose revealed his new poster of his upcoming movie 'Thattinpurathe Achyuthan' and one could easily identify that half of the faces were from the 'Nayika Nayakan' show. The movie which stars Kunchacko Boban and Sravana in the lead also stars Nayika Nayakan fame Amina Nijam, Sidhi Vinayak, Roshan Ullas, Malavika Krishnadas, Meenakshi and Ann Saleem in small roles. To everyone's surprise the contestant Thejus Jyothi will be seen as the villain to Kunchacko Boban in the Lal Jose movie. Kunchacko Boban and Samvrutha Sunil were the mentors of the show.

If all goes well, Malayalam movie audience will get to see an array of talented actors in the coming days. And for the budding stars, welcome to Mollywood!