The Hindi release date for the Malayalam movie “2018” is slated for May 12th, 2023. The movie, which made its initial debut on May 5th, 2023, has been performing well at the box office. The revelation was made on May 9 in Mumbai during a post-screening talk by the movie’s actors Tovino Thomas, Asif Ali, and Tanvi Ram as well as the director, Jude Anthany Joseph, and producer, Venu Kunnapally. The movie is based on a true story that happened in 2018, which resulted in numerous fatalities and submerged most of Kerala.
It has been a trend to release South Indian films in Hindi dubs, and many of these films, like Baahubali, Pushpa, RRR, KGF – Chapter 2, Kantara, Rocketry, and Karthikeya 2, have become enormous Hindi hits. It’s interesting that very few Malayalam films have gone global, but with the release of 2018 in Hindi, things seem to be progressively shifting.
Malayalam Films are Lacking National Attention
Tovino Thomas, while speaking about this aspect, made an emotional appeal. He said, “Have you ever thought how hard it is for us to bring a film to national attention? We work on constrained budgets. We don’t work in extravagant setups. When we are working on a movie, our salary is a very small percentage of the movie’s budget. We don’t work for money. We work with passion.”
Tovino Thomas continued, “We are a small state in the southernmost corner of India. Our pioneers have been making very good movies. Our films, however, release in a very less number of theatres. I wish more distributors came to release Malayalam films. We don’t want them to distribute it for free or out of love for our cinema. Let them watch the film. If they like it and if they give it a proper release, it’ll be great. After releasing it on OTT or after people watch it on Telegram, we often get appreciation but it’s not worth it. It doesn’t do good to any of us. Hence, please understand how hard it is to bring a film to cinemas.”
With Tovino Thomas, Kunchako Boban, Asif Ali, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Aparna Balamurali, Kalaiyarasan, and Narein as its main cast, the movie is written and directed by Jude Anthany Joseph. The movie, which is an exception to the rule that most disaster and survival films are wonderful escapist while being loud and dramatic, garnered positive reviews for its plot and technical aspects.
The Hindi release of “2018” is anticipated to draw a larger audience and raise Malayalam film’s popularity in Northern India.
