Nivin Pauly is currently shooting for two straight Tamil films. One of which is said to be an official remake of Ulidavaru Kandanthe, a Kannada hit film. The project is being helmed by the debutant director Gautham Ramachander and the project had a working title as Santa Maria.
While Santa Maria was being made as a bilingual to cater to both Malayalam and Tamil audience, the Tamil film is rechristened as “Avargal” while the Malayalam version is said to stick to Santa Maria. It is believed that the Tamil version has been rechristened to make use of the tax exemption criteria in the Tamil film industry.
The project also has ace cinematographer turned actor Natty aka Natraj Subramanian who plays the role of a boat mechanic.