Mohanlal, Prithviraj Sukumaran did not take a penny for L2 Empuraan: ‘Not the Rs 100 cr film where Rs 80 cr is spent on salary’

Actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran is leaving no stone unturned to promote his upcoming directorial, L2: Empuraan. Billed as one of the most expensive Malayalam films to be ever made, Empuraan boasts of a galaxy of stars including Mohanlal, Manju Warrier, Tovino Thomas, Abhimanyu Singh, and Suraj Venjaramoodu.

Talking to Pinkvilla about bringing together this ensemble, Prithviraj said, “When we started out with the casting of Empuraan, I did have a wishlist. There were endless possibilities, and I had really big names in my head. In fact, I managed to reach out to most of those actors from US, UK, China, etc… ” L2: Empuraan stars Game of Thrones-fame Jerome Flynn, Eriq Ebouaney, and Andrea Tivadar in pivotal roles. “To my shock, most of them were keen on the idea of collaborating with an Indian film and Empuraan. After we mutually agreed, the agents stepped in. And they want to get as much money for the talents as possible. But that doesn’t work for Malayalam cinema,” said Prithviraj, who shared that he knew it was impossible to get them all onboard because he didn’t want to spend a lot of money on casting.

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“Every little penny I have, I wanted to put it into the making of Empuraan. Mohanlal hasn’t taken a single rupee for the film,” said Prithviraj. Mohanlal, who was also part of the conversation, interjected that Prithviraj hasn’t taken a single dime as well. “Whatever money we spent will be seen on the screen,” said the legendary actor.

Prithviraj broke it down by pointing out that Empuraan wasn’t a “Rs 100 crore film where Rs 80 crore was spent on remunerations.” “All of us, the technicians, and the actors, knew we were attempting something different, and we all pitched in. Even the foreign actors understood. People like Jerome, Andrea acted in Empuraan as a favour,” said Prithviraj, who also revealed that Akshay Kumar did something similar with Selfiee. “He didn’t take a single rupee for the film. Akshay said that he’d take money if the film makes money. Unfortunately, the film didn’t do well, and he didn’t take any,” said Prithviraj.

L2: Empuraan, the sequel to Lucifer (2019), is set to hit the screens worldwide on March 27, and it will be released in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.