Aptly released around Christmas, the superhero offering Minnal Murali served as an ideal family entertainer. Such was the response to director Basil Joseph’s Malayalam movie that several filmmakers from the Hindi film industry approached him for the remake rights. 

Albeit delighted, Joseph isn’t convinced about sharing his narrative. “We think of Murali as a native superhero belonging to Kerala. We don’t want his identity to be scattered. Yes, discussions are underway, but nothing is being developed.” 

Unlike the south film directors who have happily shared remake rights to Bollywood filmmakers, Joseph is not in favour of a remake. “I don’t want it [to be remade]. I want this to remain an original film. We haven’t seen Spider-Man in different [iterations]. There is one Spider-Man, and one Krrish. So, there should be one Minnal Murali.” Set in the ’90s, the Netflix project — frontlined by Tovino Thomas — follows the journey of an ordinary man who becomes a superhuman after being struck by lightning. 

Viewers’ appreciation has only given credence to a fact that Joseph had realised early on — the film held promise for the making of a franchise. “There should be a sequel. We have some stories in mind. It is tough to match the standard of the original story, because originals are easy [to create]. You use the story of an underdog, and hence people can associate with it. But, it is tough to make sequels relatable. The character here is larger than life to begin with. Making viewers connect with him is tricky.”

History is testimony that superhero movies create a big hole in producers’ pockets. Ask Joseph how he accomplished the task on a slim budget and he says, “We didn’t want any gimmicks as far as showcasing his superpower is concerned. He is a normal human being, but has some powers. This is a fake story, but we wanted people to be convinced that the goings-on are actually happening. The idea is to work on the ground level so that we can minimise the use of VFX. We took innumerable takes on the ground for some scenes.”