Varalaxmi and Santhosh Pratap's Kondraal Paavam goes on floors 

Kondraal Paavam, the upcoming Tamil film starring actors Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Santhosh Pratap in the lead roles, has gone on floors in Chennai on Friday. The regular shooting is scheduled to commence from November 1 in Hyderabad.

Helmed by Dayal Padmanabhan, who will be marking his Tamil directorial debut, Kondraal Paavam will be a crime thriller, which is set in the year 1981. It is based on a famous Kannada play Aa Karaala Ratri, written by Mohan Habbu. Speaking to Cinema Express about the Tamil remake, Dayal, who has previously directed films in Kannada, said, “I have already adapted the play as Aa Karaala Ratri in Kannada, in 2018. It had fetched several state awards and I remade the film in Telugu as Anaganaga O Athidhi. We are now making the film as Kondraal Paavam in Tamil.”

Calling the film a “classic crime thriller”, Dayal explains how we went about casting Varalaxmi as the lead. “I wanted someone who will have a girl-next-door look and know the language as well. She ticked both the boxes. In addition, this film is women-centric and we felt that Varalaxmi would be apt to deliver the performance we want,” he adds.

The filmmaker also gave us a short summary of his upcoming venture, as he said Kondraal Paavam is set against the backdrop of a lonely house in Dharmapuri. “The house is occupied by family and one fine night, a traveler knocks at their door for shelter overnight. What happens within a span of one night is the story. We kept the title this because I want to question the ethics of punishment given to criminals. For example, in the case of Hyderabad veterinarian, a few questioned on the encounter of the convicts. This film dabbles on the topic of punishment and the ethics of it.”

While Varalaxmi will play a family member, Santhosh is the traveler. The film also stars Eswari Rao, Charle, Manobala, Jaya Kumar, Meesai Rajendran, Subramaniam Siva, Imran, Sendrayan, TSR Srinivasan, Yazar, Kavitha Bharathi, Thangadurai, and Kalyani Mahadhavi.

Kondraal Paavam will commence full-fledged filming from November 1 in Hyderabad and it will also be shot in Hogenakkal. The film will be wrapped up in a month. The technical crew consists of Sam CS composing the music and cinematographer R Chezhiyan. The film will be edited by Preethi Babu. The film will feature four songs.

Kondraal Paavam is produced by Pratap Krishna and Manoj Kumar of Einfach Studios and co-produced by Dayal Padmanabhan of D Pictures. Dayal has also written the screenplay, and co-wrote dialogues with John Mahendran.

The team is looking for a release early 2023 theatrical release.