Malayalam star hero Prithviraj Sukumaran’s movie “The Goat Life” is set for a theatrical release on the 28th of this month in Malayalam, along with Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada languages. The film is based on Benjamin’s novel “Goat Days” and is directed by the award-winning director Blessy. Visual Romance banner has produced this movie with a huge budget as a prestigious project in the Malayalam film industry. Mythri Movie Distribution Company is releasing the movie “The Goat Life” in the Telugu States. Today, the pre-release press meet of this movie was held in Hyderabad. Hero Prithviraj Sukumaran, director Blessy, Hollywood actor Jimmy Jean Lewis, and producers Y Ravi Shankar from Maitri and Shashi participated in this event. On this occasion,
Hero Prithviraj Sukumaran said, “Recently, I came to you with ‘Salaar’ in the character of King Varadaraja Mannar. Now, I am going to appear on screen with the character of a slave named Najeeb in the movie ‘The Goat Life’. Varadaraja Mannar is purely Prashanth Neel’s imagination. However, this movie is a true story. Najeeb is alive among us. He migrated to the Gulf countries in the 90s for a livelihood. ‘Goat Days’ is the book he wrote, describing the hardships he faced during this journey. This book, written by Benjamin, was published in 2008 in Kerala. As soon as it was published, it became extremely popular. Every director, hero, and producer in Kerala tried to get the rights to this novel. Finally, our director Blessy secured those rights. Fortunately, I got the chance to act as Najeeb. We committed to this film in early 2009. But at that time, it was impossible to fund the required budget for this film. We began shooting in 2018, after ten years. By then, the market level of regional films had increased, as had the popularity of Malayalam movies. We began shooting in 2019, with schedules in Jordan. We have completed the portions in Kerala. For this film, I first gained weight and then lost 31 kg. We took a gap of 7 months after a schedule to lose weight. Even now, the budget of this film is considered risky. When we resumed shooting in Jordan, a COVID lockdown was imposed. We halted shooting completely for three months. It was also challenging for us to return to India. We came to India on a Vande Bharat special flight. It’s uncertain whether the pandemic will ever end. After a year and a half, we resumed shooting in a place called Timmoun in Algeria, located in the middle of the Sahara desert. No film crew had gone there before. Ma Blessy sir has a deep passion for cinema. We could shoot there because of him. Every artist in the Malayalam industry aspires to work on at least one film with Blessy Sir. He is such a distinguished director. After Algeria, we returned to Jordan and filmed the remaining part. We aimed to complete shooting by 2022 and then move to post-production, which lasted for a year and a half. It must be said that “The Goat Life” is a project with zero compromises. We designed it without compromising even a single frame in both shooting and post-production. The film, planned in 2008, is finally coming to you on March 28, 2024. We aimed for a perfect release. Fortunately, Mythri Movie Company is distributing it in Telugu. I sent a message to Ravi, indicating this film’s importance in my career. He replied with “Done, sir”. Red Giant is releasing it in Tamil, Hombale Films in Kannada, and My Friend Anil in the North. This movie is based on real-life incidents. Everyone watching the movie will feel those emotions. It’s technically brilliant. After watching this movie, none of the audience will say that it could have been done better. I hope you all like “The Goat Life”. I was offered a key role in Chiranjeevi’s “Saira Narasimha Reddy”. Then, I explained that I was preparing for this movie, which is why I couldn’t act. Later, I was asked to direct the Telugu remake of “Lucifer” titled “Godfather”. Even then, I continued with “Goat Life”. Chiranjeevi said it seemed like I was always telling the same story. I humbly expressed my desire to act in his movie but couldn’t. Afterward, Chiranjeevi would send regular messages, even congratulating me on the release of “Godfather”. If there’s an opportunity in the future, I will definitely work with Chiranjeevi.
Producer Y Ravi Shankar said, “We are releasing ‘The Goat Life’ in Telugu on the 28th of this month. We are proud to distribute such a magnificent film from our company. This movie is the answer for those seeking new types of films. Here, we produce a film with a budget of 50 crore rupees, but in Malayalam, with the same quality and passion, it’s made for 25 crore rupees. The production value of ‘The Goat Life’, made with a budget of 80 crore rupees, is estimated to be over one hundred crore rupees. Director Blessy made this movie after many years of hard work. Great technicians like AR Rahman and Rasul Pookutty worked on this movie, and the songs have become big hits. During the lockdown, I watched great Malayalam movies like ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyam’, ‘Driving License’, ‘Trance’. Malayalam movies have fans all over the country. Prithviraj Sukumaran is multi-talented. ‘Lucifer’, remade in Telugu by our megastar, was directed by him in Malayalam. This is another significant film by him. We believe that ‘The Goat Life’ will definitely be a big success in Telugu.”
Director Blessy said, “Thanks to Mythri Movie’s Ravi and Shashi, who are releasing our movie in the Telugu States. Thanks to all the Telugu audience. Telugu is my favorite language, closer to Malayalam. Next time, I will speak in Telugu. Initially, we wanted to shoot this film in the desert of Rajasthan, but we couldn’t find any deep desert locations there. Arabian sheep are different from ours. We went abroad to shoot because of such details. When we started shooting, the exchange rate of the Indian rupee to the US dollar was 60 rupees, and now it is 83 rupees. This fluctuation has affected our budget. We shot in the desert for about 150 days. The costs are high there. Despite the increased budget, we were able to bring the desired feel to the film.”
Hollywood actor Jimmy Jean-Louis said, “This is my first Indian film. I’m happy to be introduced to the Indian audience with such a wonderful film as ‘The Goat Life.’ In this movie, I played the character of Ibrahim Qadri. This is a key role. I am the character who helps the hero, Najeeb, in his long journey. All the cast and crew who shot for this film under many adverse conditions should be appreciated. We shot in countries like Jordan. Filming went on for months and years. ‘Can we complete the shooting of the movie “The Goat Life” in one go?’ But our director Blessy persevered and completed the shoot. We are doing promotions for this movie in different cities. Watch the movie ‘The Goat Life’ in theaters on the 28th of this month. You will surely be thrilled.”
Shashi from Mythri Movie Distribution said, “We welcome all the team of the movie ‘The Goat Life.’ Happy to release this movie through our Mythri Movie Distribution. We attended this movie event in Kochi, Kerala. A huge event was held, which was unprecedented in the Malayalam film industry. 250 editions of the novel ‘Goat Days,’ which is the source of the film’s story, were published in Kerala. Every resident of Kerala knows this ‘Goat Days’ novel and its characters. This movie inspires the audience to move forward no matter how many difficulties are faced in life.”
