Why Fazil chose to remove Mammootty from Manichithrathazhu cast and chose Mohanlal instead?
Manichithrathazhu is one of the epic films made in Malayalam Cinema history and it has been regarded as one of the best ever films made in Indian Cinema as well. It has been remade to other languages in India like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi etc, but still, the Malayalam version starred by Mohanlal, Sobhana, Thilakan and Suresh Gopi stands above all like a textbook of filmmaking, performance etc in Indian Cinema. Master Director Fazil conceived this movie based on the screenplay written by Madhu Muttam. The lead male character in this movie is played by Mohanlal and the character named Dr. Sunny is regarded as one of the best performances ever by an Indian Actor as well. But while they were planning this movie, director Fazil had Mammootty in mind to play this character named Dr. Sunny. They even wrote dialogues at certain situations in the movie keeping Mammootty in mind. But still, they opt for Mohanlal at last moment.
Fazil said in a recent media interview that he chose to remove Mammootty and chose Mohanlal in the movie because he feared that if Mammootty plays a naughty character like Dr. Sunny, the audience may reject it. Mammootty is not well known for his performance when it comes to characters with a little comic flavor. On the other hand, Mohanlal is a jack of all trades when it comes to doing any kind of roles. So he cast Mohanlal in the movie and the result was terrific. He had just made that character immortal and one of the best ever in Indian Cinema.
