Director Sugeeth: My Santa has a family-friendly subject

Among the Christmas releases out this week is director Sugeeth’s My Santa, starring Dileep. The follow-up to his horror-fantasy Kinavalli last year, My Santa marks Sugeeth’s seventh directorial.

Sugeeth tells us the film has Dileep playing Santa Claus through its entire length. “It is something made purely for family audiences. To put it simply, it’s a feel-good subject,” he says.

The remaining cast includes Sunny Wayne, Shine Tom Chacko, Sai Kumar, Siddique, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Indrans, Dharmajan Bolgatty, and Anusree. V Saajan has edited the footage shot by cinematographer Faizal Ali. Vidyasagar is the film's music director.

The film was shot in Ooty. The wintry setting was also a characteristic of Kinavalli. The decision to place the story in Ooty, Sugeeth says, was to reflect Santa’s personality as the ‘prince of winter’.

When asked what drew him to the script, Sugeeth says it was an emotionally engaging idea by newcomer Jemin Cyriac that strongly appealed to him. “It revolves around relationships and has a mix of different emotions. Jemin was supposed to do another script, but as I found this idea more interesting, I asked him to put that on hold and develop this one instead.”

Sugeeth was working on a film with Asif Ali titled Parannu Parannu when Dileep immediately became available to do My Santa. “Dileep’s involvement gave the project an extra push and made us very confident,” says the director, who is also one of the film’s producers along with Nishad Koya, Ajeesh OK, Sajith Krishna, and Saritha Sugeeth.

Following My Santa, Sugeeth will move on to Parannu Parannu, which is likely go into production by January 25 or February 10. The film, a love story, will be shot mostly in Dubai, with a few portions set to be filmed in Idukki. “It’s also a feel-good story,” he adds.