This superhit Mammootty starrer was initially rejected by 10 producers!

Kottayam Kunjachan is one of Mammootty’s most popular films and characters. His spectacular portrayal of the rough spoken Kunjachan is easily one of the best performances by any actor in an ‘achayan’ character.

The movie, released in 1990 was a huge success and became of a trendsetter during that time. Even today, Kottayam Kunjachan is referred in Kerala’s pop culture. But not many know that Dennis Joseph’s script was declined by many before eventually reaching director TS Suresh Babu’s hands.

The director revealed this in a recent media interaction. After getting great response on the opening day, Dennis Joseph had called Suresh Babu told that the script was initially rejected by 10 producers and 5 other directors. They were not sure that Mammootty could play such a role. However, the director was confident that the movie will be successful.

Interestingly, Mammootty, even today, does not know that the movie went through a lot of rejections. During the shoot itself, Mammootty had high hopes on the movie and his wife was also highly impressed with the script. In the interview, Suresh Babu says that, had Dennis Joseph revealed about the initial rejections to Mammootty, the actor would never have signed the movie and it would have been shelved forever.

Kottayam Kunjachan is about an erstwhile thug who has just been released from jail his arrival to the village of Odaangara. The movie had a stellar star cast that included actors like Sukumaran, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha, Ranjini, Prathapachandran, Babu Antony, Ganesh Kumar and many others. It was funded by M Mani under the banner of Sunitha Productions.