Interview: Filmmaker Devan on JC Daniel Award and ‘Valatty’ going international

Movies By Arjun Ramachandran Jan 10, 2025 Read the article

In July 2023, Malayalam director Devan Jayakumar made an impressive debut with Valatty- The Tale of Tails.

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An adventure- romcom, the film was written and directed by Devan and produced by Friday Film House.

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The film and the director are back in the news after Devan was recently conferred with the special jury award for best director by the prestigious JC Daniel Awards.

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During a freewheeling chat with South First, Devan spoke about Valatty and his new projects.

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"I was thrilled to receive the award. When my movie Valatty was released, it didn’t receive much appreciation from the Malayalam industry, but it was recognized in other languages."

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The Russian version has a higher rating and more votes compared to the Indian version. There are also reviews in Russian, and when I translated them, I found they were positive.

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I’m thrilled that my movie is being watched in a country with such a different culture, especially since I was unaware of these factors.

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