Prithviraj Sukumaran’s upcoming film ‘Aadujeevitham - The Goat Life’ has been in production for a few years. He recently opened up about the project at a press meet in Hyderabad, revealing that he was so dedicated to it that he turned down superstar Chiranjeevi twice using the “same excuse.”
The actor revealed that he was approached for Chiranjeevi’s ambitious project ‘Sye Rat Narasimha Reddy’ in 2019, by Suhasini Maniratnam. Prithviraj said, “I was really flattered, the fact that he thought of me for a big role was like a certificate for me. But I apologised and told him I had just started shooting for this project, for which I had been waiting for a decade. I had to grow a beard, lose weight. He was fine with it.”
Then, in 2022, when Chiranjeevi starred in the Telugu remake of Prithviraj’s Mohanlal-starrer, the 2019 film ‘Lucifer,’ the actor was once again asked to come on board. Prithviraj said, “A few years later, I became a director with Lucifer, which was a hit in Kerala. Chiranjeevi sir brought the rights to that film. His team asked me again to consider directing Lucifer’s Telugu remake. Again I told him, I would have loved to sir, but there’s a big film I’m doing for which I have to grow a beard and lose weight. And he was like, hey, you said the same story last time. I had forgotten that I already used the same excuse. But I hope his team conveyed to him that it was true.”
Blessy directed Aadujeevitham, which has been in production since 2009. It is based on a novel written by Benjamin, and the director signed a deal with the writer. While he began working on the screenplay, budget constraints hindered the film’s progress in 2015 when Jimmy Jean-Louis and Steven Adams came on as producers.
The film was shot between 2018 and 2022. The team was stranded in Jordan for 70 days due to the Covid-10 pandemic and had to be evacuated by the Indian government.