How Renji Panicker gave Suresh Gopi a memorable comeback

NIRMAL YESODA

Suresh Gopi is widely considered the third biggest Superstar in Mollywood, next to Mammootty and Mohanlal. However, during the late 1990s, Suresh Gopi refrained himself from doing action roles, after several people criticised the star for doing extreme violent roles with firebrand dialogues on screen.

Later, Suresh Gopi did some family-oriented roles, but none of these films succeeded in making impacts at the box-office, and this hit brought compelled Suresh Gopi to take a small hiatus.

In the absence of Suresh Gopi, many action thrillers hit the screens in Mollywood, but none of these flicks made the impact of films such as Commissioner, Pathram, and Lelam. To end this drought of mass entertainers, Renji Panicker announced Bharathchandran IPS, a sequel to the blockbuster Commissioner in 2004.

Renji Panicker made this decision after Suresh Gopi requested him to bring back Bharathchandran, the daredevil cop who questions the injustices in society.

It should be noted that Renji Panicker had initially announced a film named Nari with Mohanlal in the lead role. However, the film was stalled due to unknown reasons. Upon Suresh Gopi’s request, Renji Panicker made some slight changes in the scripts of Nari and made it suitable for the action king.

After months of anxious wait, Bharathchandran IPS hit the screens on August 4, 2005, as an Onam release. The film, upon its release, broke several collection records and emerged as one of the biggest hits of the year. In several centers, the film enjoyed a theatrical run of more than 100 days, and with the success of this movie, Suresh Gopi once again proved that his stardom is intact in Mollywood.

The success of Bharathchandran IPS literally revived Suresh Gopi’s career, and it helped him to rack up some memorable characters in movies like Chinthamani Kolacase, and The Tiger.

As Suresh Gopi and Renji Panicker are celebrating 15 glorious years of Bharathchandran IPS, Nithin, Renji Panicker’s son, is now busy with the works of his new movie Kaaval. This movie too has Suresh Gopi in the lead role, and is expected to be a high voltage action thriller, with elements of family sentiments. Renji Panicker is also playing a crucial role in this movie. The official teaser of Kaaval was released recently, and it succeeded in impressing both audiences and critics alike.

According to sources close to the movie, the shooting of the movie is almost completed, and there are only a few outdoor sequences remaining. The shooting of the film is expected to resume after the end of coronavirus lockdown measures.