There was not a dull moment on the set, says director Praveen Chandran about Malayalam web series, ‘Perilloor Premier League’

Web series Perilloor Premier League directed by Praveen Chandran is a humorous tale featuring a bunch of quirky characaters

Perilloor Premier League (PPL) breezes through the lives of a bunch of quirky, unintentionally funny people of a fictional village, Perilloor. With the seven-episode web series winning hearts, its director Praveen Chandran is a happy soul.

The series is the first independent directorial venture of Praveen who has worked in Malayalam cinema for over two decades. Speaking to MetroPlus from Mannarkkad, his home town in Palakkad district, Praveen says that PPL happened because of its writer Deepu Pradeep, who has written Kunjiramayanamand Vipin Das’ upcoming Prithviraj-Basil Joseph movie, Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil.

“The simple yet caricaturish characters in Perilloor are characters from Deepu’s blog [Deepu Pradeep Blog]. His stories are immensely popular. Since I am a fan of his writing, I got in touch with him and we became friends. I planned to make my directorial debut with a film written by him. But we couldn’t proceed beyond the pre-production stage because the film required crowds and that was not possible then due to the pandemic. So, the project was put on hold,” he says.

After that Deepu wrote a script bringing in characters from his blog and got in touch with the production house, E4 Entertainment. “They pitched the idea to Disney+ Hotstar and once the project was approved Deepu suggested my name to helm the series,” Praveen says.

In PPL, Malavika Purushothaman (Nikhila Vimal), a birdbrain herself, wants to get married to her childhood crush, Sreeraman aka Sreekuttan (Sunny Wayne), who is also a nitwit. The story unfolds when she is persuaded to become the Panchayat President, thanks to her manipulative uncle, Peethambaran (Vijayaraghavan).

Among other screwballs living in Perilloor are Soman (Ashokan), Malavika’s opponent who has never won an election but is never short on confidence; Gomathy (Jaya Kurup), Peethambaran’s wife, a queen of thug dialogues, most of them targetting her husband, Radhakrishnan (Sivaji Guruvayoor). Then there are Sreekuttan’s flirtatious uncle, Psycho Balachandran, a sadist (Aju Varghese), a fake astrologer Ambareesh (Sarath Sabha), and Peethambaran’s ambitious aide, Chandu (Sajan Cherukayil), among others. “Malavika is perhaps the only character Deepu created for the series,” Praveen says.

Praveen admits that web series was an unfamiliar format for him since he has worked only in movies. He started his career as an assistant director in College Days (2010) after studying in a film school. He became a chief associate in Pattam Pole, followed by films such as Ithihasa, Urumbukal Urangarilla, Tiyaan, Luca and Kurup.