Entertainment Desk
21 November 2025, 10:12 AM IST
“When Lal’s character is announced dead, the audience already feels uneasy. So I told him” to try cutting it only in his theatre. After the cut, we realised that the audience response improved,” recalls director
Sibi Malayil and Mohanlal
Director Sibi Malayil has revealed how veteran actor Mohanlal ended up playing the character Niranjan in the superhit Malayalam film ‘Summer in Bethlehem’, which is set to re-release in theatres next month.
Speaking at the press meet, veteran director Sibi Malayil shared several fascinating behind-the-scenes moments from the making of the iconic 1998 family entertainer, which featured Jayaram, Suresh Gopi and Manju Warrier in the lead.
When questioned about Mohanlal’s role in the film, Sibi Malayil said that writer Ranjith had travelled with him to visit Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner in Bengaluru, where the actor was undergoing treatment, to request him to act in the film.
Mohanlal had about ten minutes of screen time in the movie, but those scenes were later removed, he recalled.
Sibi Malayil’s words:
“Ranjith wrote the script while staying at the ‘Summer in Bethlehem’ shooting location. So during the early days, we shot only the songs. After the script reached a certain point, Ranjith told me that there was one more character entering the story, someone who must appear in the climax. He said only an actor who stands above the two leads, in terms of popularity, could pull it off. So we considered many names.
We thought of Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and several others. But then we wondered, when we have Lal here, why look elsewhere? At that time, Lal was in Bengaluru for a month-long treatment. Ranjith and I went to meet him personally and explained the situation. He immediately agreed and said, ‘It’s your film, of course, I’ll do it.’ We asked for just two days of his time.
Lal had a grown beard then and looked extremely calm because of the treatment. Seeing that made me very happy. I told him to come straight to the location without shaving. That look suited the character perfectly. The glow on his face at that time really helped elevate the role.
We kept Lal’s presence in the film a complete secret until the movie was released in theatres. That surprise was received with huge excitement back then. There’s a secret behind this, too—we deleted two scenes. One scene showed Lal convincing Manju after the Thalikettu sequence. It was about five to ten minutes long. There was another scene featuring Lal as well. When Siyad Koker (producer) watched the film on the first day, he called me and said those scenes made the audience uncomfortable.
When Lal’s character is announced dead, the audience already feels uneasy. So I told him to try cutting it only in his theatre. After the cut, we realised that the audience response improved.
We had planned to include those scenes in the re-release. But since we couldn’t source good-quality negatives, it was not possible. Otherwise, it would have been a wonderful surprise.”
Summer in Bethlehem is set to re-release on December 12 with enhanced 4K visuals. The makers have already released the trailer.
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