The shooting of the magnum opus project ‘Aadujeevitham’ directed by Blessy, headlining Prithviraj is finally over! The shooting which lasted over 4 years finally wrapped up on Thursday. “14 years, a thousand obstacles, a million challenges, three waves of a pandemic…one spectacular vision! Blessy’s Aadujeevitham…pack up," Prithviraj tweeted.
This is the first Malayalam film to have such a lengthy schedule. Though the shooting took 160 days, it took four years and a half to wrap up. The final schedule was in Ranni.
The shooting of Blessy’s ‘Aadujeevitham’ started in February 2018 at Pathanamthitta. Some portions were shot at Palakkad. In the same year, they shifted to Jordan for shooting. They shot for almost 30 days there. In 2019, though they planned to go back to Jordan it had to be postponed due to Prithviraj’s date clashes. And finally, they landed in Jordan in 2020. They had also planned a schedule in Algeria. Because of the pandemic, the crew was stuck in Jordan for over 65 days.
The team landed in Kochi on May 22nd, 2020 after a gap of two and half months. By then they had shot the major portions of the film in Jordan and finished their schedule. For a year shooting didn’t happen because of Covid. Meanwhile, the film’s postproduction works were progressing.
On March 16, 2022, the second schedule started in Sahara and Algeria. Prithviraj reached the location on March 31st. Since there was a curfew in Jordon owing to the pandemic, it affected their schedule. The shooting which was stalled on April 1st restarted at Wadi Rum on April 24th. They shot at the Sahara desert for 40 days and at Wadi Rum for 35 days. On June 16th Prithviraj returned to India.
Movie lovers are waiting eagerly to watch the screen adaptation of Benyamin’s famous novel. Prithviraj plays Najeeb, an Indian migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. In a recent interview, Prithvi opened up about her struggles of losing weight for the film.
“I knew that I had to make changes to my body when I committed to 'Aadujeevitham' in 2018. That I did. And I have decided that I won't make such changes to my body for another film. Because it is impossible to go back to that body ever again. You haven’t seen my real makeover for the film. They have kept the stills of my extreme makeover under wraps. When I came back from Jordon my body was at my thinnest. The version of me you saw was the one who ate well when I was stuck in Jordon for two months. You will know this when you watch the film.”
Along with Prithviraj, there is Amala Paul and Shobha Mohan. AR Rahman has done the music. KS Sunil has done the cinematography. The production design is by Prashant Madhav and Ranjith Ambadi has done the makeup.
