Malayalam director Rohit M G Krishnan says appreciation for ‘Iratta’ has surpassed his expectations

Rohit M G Krishnan’s directorial debut, Iratta, is a thriller with Joju George playing twins in uniform

The success of Iratta is a dream come true for the debut director Rohit M G Krishnan, who has also written the script of the thriller starring Joju George in a double role. “It is not a conventional commercial film and so I was not sure if it would work with the audience. The appreciation has surpassed my expectation,” admits Rohit.

Iratta is about twins, Pramod and Vinod, both of them cops. There is no love lost between the two. Vinod, the wayward one, is shot dead inside a police station under mysterious circumstances and Pramod is out to find the truth.

What works primarily for Iratta is its taut screenplay, engaging narrative and brilliant performances. Rohit says that he wrote Iratta after another story he pitched to a leading production house fell through.

“I knew that I had to write a low-budget movie to get a producer. I realised that it would be better to work on a film with a single location. There are umpteen such examples in world cinema and what works in all of them is the curiosity factor. So I started looking around for subjects that would fit the bill and that is when I came across an incident that happened in Kerala. I fictionalised it and that’s how I started writing Iratta in 2017.”

By then he was employed in the postal department and the script evolved during his bike journey between his home and office. Once the script was ready, he started searching for a producer, especially someone who supported newcomers. “Even if no one came forward, I had decided to make it with the support of my friends. My plan was to take it to the International Film Festival of Kerala,” says the 31-year-old, currently posted with Head Post Office, Ottappalam, as system administrator.

He shortlisted a few producers and managed to take the script to actor-producer-director Sajid Yahiya. “Joju chettan was soon on board and we started pre-production in 2020. The pandemic and lockdown stalled everything. By the time things limped back to normal, Joju chettan stepped in as the producer,” says Rohit. Joju has produced the movie with director Martin Prakkat and Sijo Vadakkan, producer of Madhuram.

An engineer, Rohit’s tryst with direction was through short films. “I learnt filmmaking by watching films. Being extremely shy, I knew acting was not meant for me. I was confident as a storyteller and so I chose to be behind the camera.”