"Someone even said that Suresh will win if he contests elections again": Director opens up about re-release

Summer in Bethlehem, directed by Sibi Malayil, is a Malayalam film with a superstar cast that became a huge success. The film, which hit the screens in 1998, was re-released on December 12. Summer in Bethlehem is once again receiving good responses in the theatres. Now, director Sibi Malayil has spoken in an interview about casting Suresh Gopi and Jayaram in the film.

"Summer in Bethlehem was originally intended to be made in Tamil. Prabhu was chosen to play the character Dennis. However, that project did not work out. When that film was made in Malayalam, the first option to play Dennis was Suresh Gopi. Suresh was chosen in a single day. Suresh Gopi was free then. Until then, Suresh had mostly done police roles.

Suresh said he would play Dennis for a change. I watched the film many times before the re-release. Everyone who sees it now will agree how handsome Suresh is. Someone even said that Suresh will win if he contests the elections again. He was really handsome then. Now Suresh Gopi looks serious. Jayaram was very busy when he was cast. Jayaram was active in Tamil films then," said Sibi in Malayalam.

Suresh Gopi had also revealed some things in an interview about playing the character of Dennis in Summer in Bethlehem. 'It was producer Siyad Koker who called me to act in the film. I was not ready then. It was Sibi who told me to listen to the story of the film. I said okay after listening to the story. Sibi asked me who would play the character of Niranjan in the film. I told him that no one else but Mohanlal could play that character. I was sure that if Mohanlal came, the film would be a superhit,' said Suresh Gopi.