Sumathi Valavu aftermath Unni Mukundan’s shadow war? Malikappuram director and writer allege systematic character assassination.

The fallout from the box-office failure of Sumathi Valavu has taken a dramatic turn. Director Vishnu Sasi Shankar and writer Abhilash Pillai have held a press conference to hit back at the wave of cyberbullying they’ve faced, placing the blame squarely on actor Unni Mukundan.

The duo’s primary grievance is an alleged PR campaign designed to credit Unni Mukundan for the success of Malikappuram. They claim there is a calculated effort to paint Unni as the "real" creative force behind his hits while leaving directors to shoulder the blame for his flops. Addressing rumours that Unni directed Malikappuram, they clarified that the actor was only involved in the action sequences, a fact reportedly backed by the film’s mixing engineer.

The accusations took a personal turn when Abhilash Pillai claimed Unni actively tried to derail Vishnu’s career in the Tamil film industry. According to Abhilash, Unni sent disparaging messages to a Tamil producer to prevent Vishnu from being signed. "It’s a betrayal of friendship," Pillai remarked, describing the tactics as a "master plan" to destroy a young filmmaker’s future.

The filmmakers claim to possess evidence of paid PR teams flooding social media with copy-pasted defamatory comments. This public outburst comes in response to the massive backlash the duo received following producer Murali Kunnumpurath’s disclosure regarding the financial ruin caused by Sumathi Valavu.

Vishnu and Abhilash concluded by stating they intend to fully expose the mechanics behind this alleged smear campaign shortly.