Development A film based on
Kunjali Marakkar was originally planned by
Priyadarshan with screenwriter
T. Damodaran in 1996, with
Mohanlal in the title role. The idea for the film originated and was discussed in length at the sets of Mohanlal-starring
Kaalapani (1996) in
Kozhikode. Due to budget constraints, it did not progress, "back then, our industry size was very limited and most producers weren't ready to invest hugely in such big ventures", said Priyadarshan. Damodaran
pitched a plot idea in 1999, but "it was inconceivable back then to make a film that was extensively set at sea", said Priyadarshan. Meanwhile, during 2008 – 2009, director
Jayaraj too planned a film on Kunjali Marakkar with Mohanlal in the title role and hired
T. P. Rajeevan to write the screenplay. It was ready to begin production and when the screenplay was handed over to Mohanlal, he did not show interest. That screenplay was later bought by August Cinema from Rajeevan for making a separate project with different cast and crew. In 2013, Priyadarshan revealed that in addition to a
Hindi film, he was working on a
Malayalam period film about a Kunjali Marakkar chieftain with Mohanlal in the title role for which the research work was ongoing. On 1 November 2017, Priyadarshan confirmed to
The Times of India that he would start the project after completing a Hindi film first and the ongoing research would require at least 10 more months to complete. They wanted to look deeper into history since what was gathered until then was information already available to the public. It was undecided then on which Kunjali Marakkar would Mohanlal portray out of the four Marakkars. Priyadarshan said the story he would come up with would be a mix of fact and fiction, as the information about many of the incidents that happened during that era are unavailable. Priyadarshan zeroed in on
Kunjali Marakkar IV as the protagonist as he "has the most interesting story". Mohanlal said that their idea was to make a patriotic film. Marakkar IV was at the forefront of resistance against the Portuguese invaders and is regarded as the first naval commander in India and was also an expert navigator. That is why they have dubbed him the "lion of the Arabian Sea". The budget was revealed to be ₹100
crore, making it the
most expensive film made in Malayalam cinema—produced under the company
Aashirvad Cinemas, with Moonshot Entertainments and Confident Group as co-producers. Production is said to have begun on 1 November 2018 on the day of
Kerala Piravi.
Writing Priyadarshan co-wrote the screenplay with his assistant
Ani I. V. Sasi. Ani himself expressed interest in collaborating with Priyadarshan when he learnt that the latter was working on a film about Kunjali Marakkar. Priyadarshan also incorporating many inputs from late Damodaran from their early discussions. The first draft was completed in April 2018. It was estimated to require seven months for pre-production and eight months for post-production. They completed the final draft by early June 2018. The story spans the period from 1505 to 1601. Since nothing much is known about Marakkar IV,
artistic freedom was to be used to tell his story. Whatever was found about him was completely contradictory, while the Europeans portray him as a villain, the
Arabs hail him as a savior. Priyadarshan took the basic structure of the story from a chapter he learned as a child in his
grade three textbook and worked on that. Shetty was confirmed to have signed the film, while Nagarjuna was in talks for a role. Shetty grew his hair out for his role. In June, Nagarjuna said he has not yet heard the script and will sign only after that. At the end, he did not take the role.
Madhu and
Prabhu were confirmed in that month, with the former cast as
Kunjali Marakkar I / Kuttiyali Marakkar. Prabhu plays a Tamil
shipwright who build boats for Marakkar, such a character is mentioned in history.
Fazil took the role in his absence.
Akshay Kumar was offered a role, but declined. In July 2018, Durga Krishna was reported to have been cast in a pivotal role. The team was aiming to complete the casting by the end of September 2018, including the actress for female lead role. More cast were revealed in that month.
Arjun Sarja was confirmed in a principal role. Both Shetty's and Sarja's roles are based on real-life characters in a "slightly fictionalised" form as not much about them are known from history.
Renji Panicker,
Nedumudi Venu and
Siddique were confirmed to play supporting roles. Priyadarshan revealed that
Pranav Mohanlal and
Kalyani Priyadarshan will be making "special appearances" in the film, with Pranav playing a young Marakkar IV. They play a couple. Kalyani said she herself asked her father for a role in the film.
Keerthy Suresh plays an important role. She learned
veena as part of preparing for her character who is trained in classical music. Her character has a romantic relationship with Chinali / Chiang Juvan, played by Chinese actor Jay J. Jakkrit.
Mukesh was confirmed to be in the film. In October 2018,
Pooja Kumar was in talks for a role.
Manju Warrier was cast as Subaida.
Ashok Selvan was cast in an antagonistic role, making his debut in Malayalam cinema. Shiyas Kareem was cast as a sidekick in Marakkar IV's gang; he had 50 days shoot.
Filming and production design .
Principal photography began on 1 December 2018 at
Ramoji Film City,
Hyderabad. Cinematography was handled by
Tirru. Co-writer Ani Sasi also worked as an
assistant director in the film. Pranav and Kalyani shot a few scenes early that month. A song sequence between the two was choreographed by
Brinda. Mohanlal joined the sets in mid December. Filming was wrapped by late March 2019. Principal photography lasted 104 days. However, the Tamil version is reportedly dubbed. The bulk of filming took place at Ramoji Film City itself, a five-day shoot was also held in
Thiruvananthapuram. Meeting scene between the Samoothiri and the Portuguese was shot at
Adimalathura. Kazu Neda, Sumret Muangput, and B. Thyagarajan were responsible for the action sequences. Priyadarshan's frequent collaborator
Sabu Cyril was the film's
production designer. The story is set 500 years ago in what is now
Kerala. Even though the events happened during that period are recorded in history, there are no proper documentation about the outfits, ornaments, their colour, weapons or home appliances used. Hence, some of them were made from imagination and referring available material. Ships were not built but bought from Egypt during the period of Kunjali Marakkars. Four life-size ship replicas and a 200×200 metre tank were built at Ramoji Film City. Installed on a one-acre space, the tank was filled with 150,000 litre of water. The film was never shot on sea, the action sequences on the
high seas, the storm, and the thundering waves was completely created using visual effects. There are no paintings of Marakkar IV, and it is unknown how he became the admiral of the Samoothiri. There were hardly any pictorial references regarding the costumes or ornaments worn by the warriors and the people, for that they had to depend on their imagination and some books and paintings for reference. Cannons were built accurately, but swords, shields, and helmets of Samoothiri's arsenal was made by referring similar armory existed in that century, exact models could not be found. A total of 40 cannons and more than 1000 swords were made. Some swords were made from
carbon fibers while others were from bamboo. Horses were used in the film because there was recorded history that Samoothiri used to import horses from
Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. On setting the period, they also considered the temperature of that period, which was only 21 degree Celsius at peak in summer. Priyadarshan said that creating the old
mast ships, war
galleys of the Portuguese, and the battle sequences on sea were the bigger challenges in making the film. For research, Priyadarshan could not locate the spot or remains of neither Marakkars' fort in
Iringal, nor Samoothiri's palace, even
Archaeological Survey of India did not have any clue. In the film, elephant is used as the insignia of Samoothiri's kingdom. The idea was taken from the
Emblem of Kerala which is presumed to be composed of the elephant insignia of Samoothiri and
shanku insignia of
Trivandrum kingdom. Since Samoothiri bought the ships from Egypt by bartering spices, his ships are Arabian model. Sujith Sudhakaran and V. Sai was in charge of the costume department. Keerthy's wardrobes, ornaments and character looks were based on three
Raja Ravi Varma paintings. Indrakshi Pattanaik was her stylist.
Post-production M. S. Aiyappan Nair was the editor, and the
digital intermediate was processed by
Prime Focus studio with Ashirwad Hadkar as the colorist. Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan Muralidharan of
Sync Cinema served as the sound designers, while
M. R. Rajakrishnan of
Four Frames Sound Company handled the sound mixing. Around a quarter of the film is set in sea, nonetheless, the film was never shot on sea, except for a shot of sea shore. The sea was completely created using
visual effects. Priyadarshan's son Siddharth Priyadarshan worked as the film's
visual effects supervisor, he hired his son to reduce the film's cost. Siddharth divided the graphics work among four personnel. The film was shot using
storyboard (which is scarcely used in Indian productions) as it is helpful in creating visual effects. In Priyadarshan's view, success of a film like
Lion of the Arabian Sea depends largely on the fineness of graphics, "if you don't get your graphics right, the film will look terrible. Which we have seen often in Indian cinema". Priyadarshan said that the most difficult thing to create in VFX is water and fire, for that they bought necessary software from Austria and Hungary.
Pune-based Anibrain, and two
Chennai-based Knack Studios and Golden Star Studio were employed for the film's visual effects creation. Post-production began in Chennai as soon as they completed filming. It was expected to last 11 months, with eight months consuming for visual effects alone. Post-production took 14 months to complete. The film's theatrical cut runs for 181.07 minutes. It underwent censoring in India on 23 December 2019. == Music ==