Prithviraj says there’s still a lot more to be told in ‘Lucifer’ part three

He asserted that “L2: Empuraan” will be a standalone film for people who have not seen “Lucifer”.

New Delhi: Filmmaker-actor Prithviraj Sukumaran has revealed that the entire story about Mohanlal-starrer “Lucifer” cannot be told in the second installment “L2: Empuraan” and that there is still a lot more to be told in part three.

Asked if some secrets about Mohanlal’s mysterious character will be revealed in “L2: Empuraan”, which is slated to release on March 27, Prithviraj told IANS: “There is a part three too, you know. So I can’t tell you the entire story in part two, but you’re going to get a lot more information about who and what these characters are in part two. And part two has its own plot.”

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He asserted that “L2: Empuraan” will be a standalone film for people who have not seen “Lucifer”.

“So this is actually, for people who have not seen part one, this will just be a standalone film, and you will still enjoy it as a start-to-finish story. But yes, for people who have seen part one, I’m assuming that some of the throwbacks, some dialogues that the characters speak to each other, will hold more resonance if you know what happened in part one,” said the actor.

He added: “Even otherwise, we’re very keen that this should still serve its purpose as a standalone film, and I think it does. You will get a lot more information about who these characters are. But obviously, there is still a lot more to be told in part three as well.”

The first installment “Lucifer” released in 2019 and it broke many box office records for a Malayalam film, crossing the Rs 50 crore mark in four days, Rs. 100 crore mark in eight days, and the Rs. 150 crore mark in just 21 days since its release. It became the fastest Malayalam film to reach all three milestones.

With so much hopes riding on “L2: Empuraan” courtesy the first installment, is Prithviraj feeling the pressure?

Pat came the reply from the 42-year-old star: “Yeah, see, the pressure is all outside. You know, you can’t let that pressure dictate how you make the film. And one thing that I would like to bring to your notice, which I think most of the viewers in Kerala already know, is that this is not a part two that was made as an afterthought, as a follow-up to the success that part one had.”

“Even when we were writing part one, we knew that it was going to be a three-film series. We knew that it was going to be a three-film series. We knew that the entire story can only be told in three parts,” he added.

He did not know if part one would work or not.

“But of course, when we made part one, we didn’t say that because we didn’t know if part one was going to work. You know, unless it worked, part two was not going to happen. So when part one released, at the success celebration of part one, we did say that there will be two more films following it in the same franchise,” he said.

“So it was always written as a three-film series and a three-film franchise. And as a filmmaker, I thought it was very important for me to keep telling myself that regardless of how successful the film is, it’s going to be a three-film franchise. So that’s what I’ve done, and I hope people like what they see.”

“L2: Empuraan”, also called L2E, is an action thriller film. It is the second instalment in a planned trilogy, following the 2019 film Lucifer. The film was jointly produced by Lyca Productions and Aashirvad Cinemas.

It also stars Prithviraj, Indrajith Sukumaran, Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier, Saniya Iyappan, Saikumar, Baiju Santhosh, Fazil and Sachin Khedekar reprising their roles from the original.