Action replay

It’s definitely one of the most awaited films of 2012, with superstars Mammootty and Suresh Gopi sharing screen space after the super hit mass entertainer ‘Twenty-twenty’. As the title suggests, the actors make their reentry as the King and the Commissioner, with Mammootty reprising Thevalliparambil Joseph Alex and Suresh Gopi replaying his most popular cop role of his career, the hot headed, Bharath Chandran IPS.The film is a sequel to the director’s own 1995 superhit film, ‘The King’. “It’s all about the commercial quotient. Nobody wants to remake a flop film. As for ‘King and the Commissioner’, even after 16 years both the characters are still there in the public memory, so why not cash on that? You have an assured brand and you would rather sell it than think of a new one. But risk factors are still there as there is a huge gap between the two and the audience have become more techno savvy and so you have to tweak the sequel to match to their taste,” says Renji Panicker, who has scripted the film.For Suresh Gopi, it’s a role closest to his heart- “It is definitely thrilling but at the same time challenging to bring it to a different level and live up to the expectations. But this time the movie is set completely in Delhi and both our characters (who’s been given promotion) operate from there. I am sharing screen space with Mammootty who plays Joseph Alex. It will definitely have no semblance to the original, neither the script nor the presentation as the tastes of the audience  have changed. I think the upright and plain speaking Bharat Chandran till date remains the most popular of my cop roles and also was a major breakthrough for my career at that time. With Ranji Panicker, I don’t need to worry about my role or script; we know each other very well.”Shot in Delhi, Ernakulam, Kozhikkode and Thiruvanathapuram the movie is said to be made on a huge budget. Samvrutha Sunil, Janardhanan, Jagathy Sreekumar and Vijayaraghavan are in the supporting cast.Behind the scenes The movie had its spate of controversies. First being the animosity between the lead actors with Suresh Gopi almost staging a walkout owing to differences between him and Mammootty. In fact the director was even planning to replace Gopi with Prithviraj.But it’s been said that later the duo buried the hatchet and agreed to shoot the film. In between the movie was reportedly put on hold following the income tax raids conducted on the houses and offices of Mammootty and producer Anto Joseph.It is reported that the shooting of the movie ‘The King and the Commissioner’ was going on in Kochi, when the IT raids took place.Actor Mammootty had to be present before IT investigators. It is also reported that the ill-health of Suresh Gopi was another reason for scrapping the shooting of the film.Suresh Gopi is playing a police commissioner in the film. He is said to have reduced 15 kilos to look thinner, which led him to face health problems and take leave from filming. The movie is slated to release in February.