'Pizza 3 The Mummy will tick all boxes of horror film'

While seldom do film franchises get celebrated for its uniqueness and remains relevant among audience, Tamil horror franchise Pizza has come to become one. The third instalment, Pizza 3 The Mummy, is scheduled to hit the theatres on May 12.

Director Mohan Govind, who previously assisted CV Kumar in Maayavan, will be making his directorial debut with the upcoming film. Ahead of the release, he says to CE, “This will be a serious horror film. While Pizza 1 turned into a con film towards the end, this one will be an emotional horror film. We have not added any comedy elements for the commerciality. Like how we have The Conjuring or The Exorcist in Hollywood, I believe Pizza 3 will justify the horror genre completely.”

Briefing about the plot of the upcoming film, Mohan said that it will centre on the protagonist who is running a restaurant. “When a series of murders take place at places where he delivers food, he begins to suspect something not right and goes on to probe to know who is behind the crimes,” he adds.

When asked about working in a franchise that carries a legacy, Mohan says that is working on Pizza 3 will help him build a franchise of his own. “I do harbour a dream of making a franchise which is created by me. It will definitely give me an identity. Working in Pizza 3 gave the much needed experience and learning of how a franchise works.”

“As a filmmaker, I believe that I should justify the genre I take up doing films. We have had many horror comedies, creature features, and message oriented horror stories. With Pizza 3 I have not limited to just having jump scares. I have based this film on true incident and tried to do a world-building. There is also a message, but we have tried not to preach it,” he adds.

Pizza 3 stars Ashwin Kakumanu, Pavithrah Marimuthu, Gaurav Narayanan, Abhishek Shankar, Kaali Venkat, Anupama Kumar, among others. The technical crew consists of cinematographer Prabu Rhagav, Arun Raj scoring the music and editor Ignatious Aswin. The film went on floors in 2020 and wrapped up in 2021. Mohan mentions, “90% of the film was shot during the night. We shot majorly indoors. Most of the horror films are shot in dilapidated houses, but here, we have provided classy spaces.”

Mohan also assures that the upcoming film will be technically strong and will be best experienced in theatres. After Pizza 3, the director is looking forward to work on an action film.

Pizza 3 The Mummy is backed by CV Kumar under Thirukumaran Entertainment banner. The producer backed the first two instalments of Pizza franchise as well.