Golden Ratio Backs Pa. Ranjith for ‘Vettuvam’ Film and Series (EXCLUSIVE)

Patrick Frater
·2 min read

Indian activist filmmaker Pa. Ranjith is to begin production later this year on “Vettuvam” (aka “The Hunted”), a linked film and TV series about standing up to injustice and which is largely set in a prison.

The projects are backed by Golden Ratio Films, the film production arm of Vistas Media Capital, and Neelam Studios.

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The story involves a rural gangster, who is a modern day Robin Hood to his people, but who turns himself in to the police in order to avoid his enemies. What he finds within the prison system is far worse.

The Tamil-language film will come first, followed by the series. Principal photography will begin in Southern India in August this year, with the plan to release the completed movie in 2023. Producers are Ranjith, Abhayanand Singh, Piiyush Singh, Saurabh Gupta and Aditi Anand. Co-producers are Ashwini Chaudhary and Parul Singh.

The series aimed at broadcast and streaming audiences, will follow a unique structure in which each episode takes the point of view of a different character who had been introduced in the film.

Ranjith moved from assistant director to make his feature debut in 2012 with “Attakathi,” a lighthearted portrayal of subaltern culture. He has kept busy since then, with credits including “Kabali,” about oppressed Muslims and Hindus in Malaysia, which earned a reported $38 million worldwide; 2018’s “Kaala,”about Mumbai slum dwellers resist and retaining their land from greedy corporate builders; and sport action drama “Sarpetta Parambarai,” set in North Madras’s 1970s boxing culture. He also has a completed romance film awaiting release.

Vistas Media Capital pitches itself as a global media content and technology company headquartered in Singapore, led by co-founder and group CEO Abhayanand Singh. It operates across production, distribution and film finance in India, Southeast Asia, and increasingly in Hollywood.

Its Golden Ratio Films unit has produced and released a dozen Indian films across formats and languages over the last four years and recently partnered with Appian Way (“The Revenant,” “Robin Hood,” “The Aviator”) to co-finance and co-produce “Pep,” a feature biopic about legendary boxer Willie Pep.

Golden Ratio also invested in the road horror film “Son” starring Andi Matichak (from the Halloween franchise) and Emile Hirsch that released in 2021.

Neelam is a newly established firm headed by Ranjith and Aditi Anand. It is developing film and long-form content on contemporary subject across multiple languages.

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