Development By late August 2016,
Rosshan Andrrews confirmed via media outlets that he would be directing a film based on the life of
Kerala's heroic outlaw
Kayamkulam Kochunni, written by his regular collaborators
Bobby & Sanjay and
Nivin Pauly playing the title character, to be produced by Gokulam Gopalan. It is the second film based on Kayamkulam Kochunni after the
1966 film of the same name. Kayamkulam Kochunni was a real-life thief who lived in 19th century in the
Central Travancore region. He is said to have stolen from the rich and gave to the poor like
Robin Hood. The screenplay was written after a two-and-a-half-year research by an eight-member team. The script was rehashed three times.
Kayamkulam Kochunni holds the subtitle "most dangerous man". According to Andrrews, the film would feature Kochunni's life before and after his transition as a thief, his survival attempts, romance, and the social structure during the time. It would also discuss several unanswered questions in his story. Since the appearance of present-day
Kayamkulam,
Alappuzha district has changed from the time of Kochunni, a
Sri Lankan village was to be set as Kayamkulam in the film. Filming was then planned to commence by the beginning of 2017 in Sri Lanka, a few scenes were also planned in Kayamkulam. Andrrews also revealed that they have plans to
dub and release the film in
Tamil language.
P. M. Satheesh was signed as the sound designer. Initially, they had talks with
Santhosh Narayanan to compose the film's music. Bobby and Sanjay collected a large amount of information beyond what was already known through
Kottarathil Sankunni's
Aithihyamala and through hearsay. Sanjay said that the film focuses on Kochunni's relationships and friendship. Kochunni was a socialist thief, he fought against "unbelievable cruelty" over the caste system that prevailed during that time. The team went on
location scouting in Sri Lanka in June 2017. In August, it was reported that the filming would begin on 10 September. He also gained weight for the role. During pre-production, Andrrews created miniatures for every set to be used in the film. In early September, Nivin confirmed that the filming would commence in
Udupi in a fortnight.
Casting According to Andrrews, Nivin was their first and only choice for the role of Kochunni. The film traverse through multiple timelines in Kochunni's life. Nivin was selected for the role since Andrrews felt that he has a flexible body language that suits any role, among his generation of actors. According to Sanjay, Nivin's features matches Sankunni's descriptions of Kochunni in
Aithihyamala. Andrrews briefed the film's story to Nivin along with the story of another film he plans to follow up after
Kayamkulam Kochunni, to both Nivin agreed.
Amala Paul and
Priyanka Thimmesh was confirmed before August 2017. Amala's character was said to be an important figure in Kochunni's life; Priyanka plays the role of Suhra, his wife. In late 2017, Amala opted out from the film due to scheduling conflicts, who was replaced by
Priya Anand. Andrrews said the rain affected their schedule and had to make changes, which conflicted with Amala's dates who had commitments in
Tamil films. Priya cancelled three films for
Kayamkulam Kochunni; she plays Janaki. According to Priya, Janaki's story is relevant to every woman. Wayne plays the character named Keshavan, who is well trained in Kalaripayattu. In a February 2018 interview, Sanjay revealed that Mohanlal has 40 minutes screen time who appears at a particular juncture in the story, "we wished for someone of his stature to play this character. Pakki is Kochunni's contemporary and predecessor. It's Pakki who started the unique style of robbing and that's what Kochunni continued with". In March 2018,
Nora Fatehi was confirmed to be appearing in a song sequence in the film, which also features Nivin. Choreographed by
Vishnu Deva, it was shot in
Goa in that month.
Filming Principal photography commenced on 30 September 2017 in
Udupi,
Karnataka. In the first schedule the team filmed in locations such as
Mangalore,
Manjeshwar, and Udupi for two months. It was reported that the filming would move to
Sri Lanka for the following schedule. Nivin trained in Kalaripayattu every morning before shoot under trainers from Kerala. He had a shot crop haircut and wears a
handlebar moustache for the character of Kochunni. Filming was held in
Kasaragod and Mangalore during November and December 2017. Large sets were created for the film.
Binod Pradhan was the cinematographer. The 161 days long filming was wrapped in Sri Lanka on 1 June 2018. Three cinematographers worked in
Kayamkulam Kochunni—
Binod Pradhan,
Nirav Shah, and Sudheer Palsane. Pradhan worked for 110 days after which the filming was delayed due to Nivin's injury and other reasons and Pradhan had to join
Kalank due to prior commitment. Shah was the cinematographer for the next 40 days, who shot the climax and scenes in
Goa. Palsane joined for the remaining 11 days for filming the scenes in Sri Lanka. Film's
colour grading was done by
Red Chillies Entertainment.
Kayamkulam Kochunni was made on an average budget of 30 crore. ==Music==