The movie ‘Runway’ released in 2004 will forever have a place in actor Dileep’s oeuvre. Actors Indrajith, Kavya Madhavan, Cochin Haneefa and Harishree Ashokan played important roles in the film. The protagonist character ‘Walayar Paramasivam’ soon attained a cult hero status across Kerala and mostly among film buffs. And now, in a YouTube channel interview, the scriptwriter of the movie Siby K Thomas revealed a little-known anecdote about ‘Runway’ and how actor Mammoottty got involved in the whole scheme of things.

SIBY K THOMAS:

‘Runway’ was our first collaboration with legendary director Joshiy sir. Years before ‘Runway’ we talked about a story with director Jhonny Antony and plans were made for Jose K Thomas to direct the movie. We planned to bring in Mammootty as the lead actor. The movie was tentatively named ‘Walayar Check Post’ and Gopura Chithra took up distribution.

Our team then headed off to Ooty to meet Mammootty and tell the story. He was at that time, working in Priyadarshan’s ‘Megham’. When we visited the shooting set, Dileep was also present. We had previously asked Dileep the date for the ‘Udayapuram Sulthan’ movie but the actor didn’t give us an instant yes. Even when we were visiting the ‘Megham’ set, Dillep had not agreed to be part of the ‘Udayapuram Sultan’ movie.

And then, we were visiting the set to get dates from a far bigger actor than Dileep. During break time, we narrated the story to Mammootty and he instantly agreed to be part of it. Mammooty as Hero, directed by Jose K Thomas, produced by Balu Kiriyath, and distributed by Gopura Chitra. The plan was made.

We were elated to get the date of Mammootty for the film and were about to leave the set when Dileep appeared in front of us. He asked us about the script work of ‘Udayapuram Sulthan’. We just had the date of legendary actor Mammootty and here comes Dileep still demanding the script of some other movie. I jumped into action and asked him to give a date first and then talk about the script. Dileep must have felt bad and angry. But years later, ‘Walayar Check post’ became ‘Runway’ and it was not Mammootty but Dileep who played the lead role.