Director Sibi Malayil recently opened up about how Mohanlal joined the cast of \u2018Summer in Bethlehem\u2019 as the character Niranjan. The story came to light during the film\u2019s re-release press meet, with Malayil recalling the sequence of events that led to Mohanlal\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n
According to screenwriter Ranjith, Mohanlal was approached after they met him personally in Bangalore, where he was undergoing a month-long wellness treatment. Sibi Malayil added that Mohanlal\u2019s role in the original film lasted about ten minutes, which was later edited out, and that they had considered including it in the re-release.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Summer in Bethlehem\u2019 was being written right on the shooting location,\u201d Sibi Malayil said. \u201cIn the first few days, we only shot the songs. Once the script reached a certain stage, Ranjith mentioned that one more character was needed, especially for the climax. We needed an actor of a certain stature whose presence would add weight and popularity to the film. We considered many names, from Rajinikanth to Kamal Haasan. But then we realised that since Lal was already available, why look elsewhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cAt that time, Lal had grown a beard and was unusually calm due to his treatment. Ranjith and I went to meet him personally, and Lal\u2019s response was, \u2018Isn\u2019t this your film? We can do it.\u2019 He agreed to shoot for just two days. I told him to come straight to the location and not shave his beard, and that look ended up perfectly suited for the character. His calm and cheerful demeanour added a lot to Niranjan on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sibi Malayil also revealed how they kept Lal\u2019s participation a secret until the film reached theatres, creating a big surprise for the audience. \u201cWe had actually deleted two scenes,\u201d he explained. \u201cOne involved convincing Manju after tying her up, which ran for about five to ten minutes. Another had Lal in a bench sequence with another character. After the first day\u2019s screening, Sayed called me, saying these scenes made the audience uneasy. Once Lal\u2019s character dies, people hesitate to sit. We tested it by cutting the scenes in Sayed\u2019s theatre, and it seemed fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe had hoped to include these scenes in the re-release, but we couldn\u2019t get high-quality negatives. Otherwise, it would have been a surprise for the audience once again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sibi Malayil concluded by announcing that the Ranjith-Malayil team is bringing \u2018Summer in Bethlehem\u2019 back to theatres on December 12 in 4K resolution. The trailer has already been released by the crew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Sibi Malayil recently opened up about how Mohanlal joined the cast of \u2018Summer in Bethlehem\u2019 as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[23952,23948,153,155,154,23946,23953,23945,23947,15026,23951,15031,23950,23943,23944,23942,7443,23949],"class_list":["post-39428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-4k-resolution-re-release","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-classic-malayalam-movie","tag-impact-of-celebrity-cameos-in-film","tag-malayalam-cinema","tag-malayalam-film-re-release","tag-malayalam-movie","tag-malayalam-movie-climax","tag-mohanlal","tag-mohanlal-cameo","tag-niranjan-character","tag-ranjith-screenwriter","tag-sibi-malayil","tag-summer-in-bethlehem","tag-summer-in-bethlehem-cast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}