Mohanlal's upcoming film with director Vishnu Mohan of Meppadiyan fame has been titled Operation Ganga. The makers unveiled the title with a poster featuring Mother Ukraine, a monumental Soviet-era statue in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. It's a crucial detail given the film is based on an evacuation mission carried out in 2022 by the Indian government to rescue its citizens stranded in Ukraine and neighbouring countries during the Russian invasion.
Speaking exclusively to CE about the film from Georgia, where shooting commenced recently, director Vishnu Mohan says the ambitious project took extensive planning. "It's a huge film that needed a lot of prep and research. In fact, this is among the first few films internationally to be made on the Russia-Ukraine war. A project of this scale also demanded a superstar like Mohanlal. I started developing the script only after he liked the initial idea. Even the production house came in later," he says.
Gokulam Gopalan of Sree Gokulam Movies is producing Operation Ganga, which is being mounted as a pan-India project. Acknowledging the challenges involved in executing such a subject, Vishnu says the team is yet to finalise the budget. "The only thing Gopalan sir told me was to make a film that will make Mohanlal sir and him proud. Since they both are also extremely patriotic, they want this film to be made in the best possible way."
True to the film's pan-India nature, the makers have cast actors from different languages, including Arjun Rampal and Adil Hussain from Hindi, Parthiban from Tamil and Bhagyashri Borse, who's active in Tamil and Telugu. "It was a conscious choice to make the film widely appealing. Many actors from Malayalam, including Aju Varghese and Vaazha 2-fame Ajin Joy, have already started filming. We plan to primarily shoot the film in Malayalam and later release it in six languages."
Operation Ganga also has a high-profile technical crew that boasts names like composer Shashwat Sachdev of Dhurandhar fame, Polish cinematographer Miroslaw Kuba Brozek, known for the Pushpa films, action director Sea Young Oh, who worked on Dhurandhar and Kill, noted editor Shameer Muhammed, and veteran production designer Rajeevan, whose recent credits include GOAT, Amaran and Kathanar. Multiple National Award-winning sound designer Bishwadeep Chatterjee and Kantara VFX supervisor KV Sanjit are also part of the crew.
Putting together such a strong technical team, Vishnu says, was essential for a film of this nature. "This can't be made like a usual Malayalam film. So we took a lot of time to finalise the crew. In fact, even bigger names were involved, but they had to back out due to date issues. Getting Shashwat on board itself took a lot of convincing. I approached him even before Dhurandhar, after being impressed by his work in Uri: The Surgical Strike and Kill. But his career changed post-Dhurandhar, with lucrative offers pouring in from all industries. He was initially hesitant about this project, but agreed to it after the script narration. Since he works only on one film at a time, this will be his first release after Dhurandhar 2. We recently started composing in Georgia."
Operation Ganga will be shot across a 180-day schedule across Poland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Delhi, Dehradun and Kochi. Around 80 days of shooting are planned in Georgia, with Mohanlal joining the team next week. According to Vishnu, the team is planning to shoot in a single stretch with very few breaks. Release plans are also not yet confirmed, he adds.
Vishnu, whose directorial debut Meppadiyan won him the National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director, is already feeling the pressure of helming a project of this magnitude. "This is obviously much bigger than what I've done before. You need a lot of willpower to pull off a project like this, and I believe I have that. I'm also good at co-ordinating stuff, which is why we were able to bring together such a big team."
On the filmmaking level, Vishnu says, it will be a "cinematic experience that stays true to the real incidents." He adds, "I met several real-life survivors during the scripting and incorporated many interesting details from what they went through. Around 23,000 people were rescued during the operations, and each of them will have a different story to tell. But with a feature film comes a lot of limitations. We have given it a cinematic treatment that people will hopefully be able to connect with."
