Malayalam actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran‘s Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) is finally releasing in cinemas all over the world on March 28. The 41-year-old says he’s dedicated 16 years of his life to this film, directed by Blessy.
In an interview with indianexpress.com, Prithviraj opens up about how he’s “evolved” in the 16 years from the time he signed Aadujeevitham and what the film finally hitting the big screen means to him. Prithviraj says, “I said yes to this film in 2008- 2009, which means it’s now been about 16 years. Sixteen years travelling with this film, ideating for this film… I am 41 now. 16 out of 41 is a significant portion of your life, and more than significant portion of your adult life. When I said yes to this film. I wasn’t married. Obviously, I wasn’t a father. I had not turned director. I had not turned producer. My life has evolved through all these phases and through all these phases one constant has been that this film is there. So, on the 28th of March, it’s a culmination of a lot of things, amongst which this is the film I made. So it is a life experience for me. This particular film is no longer a movie.”
The survival story of an Indian migrant worker who goes to Saudi Arabia to earn his livelihood, but finds himself living a slave-like existence in the middle of the desert, Aadujeevitham is based on a Malayalam novel by Benyamin. The movie was a work in progress for several years given its scale and vision. It finally went on floors in 2018 but was halted again because of the pandemic.
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When asked if he ever regretted the decision of signing this film so many years ago, he said, “No, I never regretted the decision. When Blessy and I shook hands and decided we are going to do this film, we knew it was impossible to dream of doing this at this scale at that point of time within the constraints of Malayalam cinema.”
While Blessy and Prithviraj, along with the film’s crew, started shooting Aadujeevitham in 2018, they had to take a break again due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Calling the wait time a “huge obstacle course” and the fact that they have spent “enormous amounts of money” to make the film, he shared, “So it took us ten years to finally get this rolling. Fortunately the industry dynamics changed, revenue streams became much bigger and we eventually landed in a place where, although it remained a very very big challenge, it was thinkable. That’s how we started shooting. Enormous amounts of money have been spent on this film.”
“But after starting the shoot again, unforeseen challenges came our way in the form of the pandemic and all that. It’s been like a huge obstacle course, so to speak. But, one thing that I am very proud of, and the whole crew is very proud of, is that through all these obstacles, all these challenges, I don’t think there has been a single moment of compromise in this film. You will not see a single second of the runtime of the film when you’ll think, ‘oh, this they just let go like that!’,” Prithviraj concluded.
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