Manamantha

Cast

Pre-production

The film was officially announced by Telugu film director Chandra Sekhar Yeleti on 14 October 2015. Produced by Sai Korrapati under his production company Varahi Chalana Chitram, the film was planned as a bilingual simultaneously made in Telugu and Malayalam languages. Mohanlal and Gautami were announced in the lead roles. The filming was then said to start by the third week of November. Yeleti described the film as a "family entertainer which involves four stories". The title Manamantha was confirmed in the end of November. According to film's executive producer Krishna Rao, it is an anthology film comprising four different stories, which at the end, will unite to the main plot. In Malayalam, the film is titled Vismayam, while the film has also a Tamil dubbed version titled as Namadhu. Tamil lyricist Madhan Karky wrote the lyrics for the songs in Tamil as well as the dialogues for Namadhu.

Mohanlal and Gautami are teaming after a gap of 19 years since Iruvar (1997) directed by Maniratnam. Manamantha will be Mohanlal's second film in Telugu after a cameo appearance in Gandeevam (1994). And Gautami's return to Malayalam cinema after a gap of 17 years. She will be dubbing herself for all the languages. Mohanlal took the decision to learn Telugu language by enlisting a translator to get his diction precise, as he wanted it to be as close as possible to that of a native Telugu speaker. According to the film's associate-director Siby Jose Chalissery, Mohanlal is trying two different acting styles for each version, and taking extra care for bringing that difference, "the scenes aren't exactly similar in the two versions. There are variations in the mannerisms, emotions and dialogue delivery,". He plays an assistant manager in a supermarket, a down-to-earth middle class man who "has strong principles and is not willing to forgo them for small gains in life,". Mohanlal dubbed for himself for all the languages, including the Tamil dubbed version. There was also negotiation with Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan for an important role. In October 2015, the production team also announced a casting call for a teenage girl. Viswant Duddumpudi was selected by Yeleti for one of the major roles in the film after performing a screen test for him. The casting team signed Anisha Ambrose for an important role as they were impressed with her performance in her past few films, and were particularly looking for a new face. She plays the love interest of Duddumpudi.

Filming

The film was formally launched in Hyderabad on 29 November 2015. Principal photography and regular filming began there on 30 November. Mohanlal gave dates for 25 days for filming. His portions were completed by January third week. The first schedule of filming was completed by the end of January.

Mohanlal started dubbing his part in June 2016. He posted a picture of him working in the recording studio through Twitter and Facebook.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was composed by Mahesh Shankar. The five song album was released by Vel Records on 27 July 2016.

Release

The film was premiered on 4 August 2016 in North America and theatrically released worldwide on the following day. It released in 81 theatres in the United States. Varaahi International Cinemas acquired the USA and Canada distribution rights of Manamantha, Vismayam, and Namadhu. Vismayam and Namadhu was released only in a limited number of screens in the United States.

Box office

The film collected a worldwide gross of ₹4 crore (US$590,000) from all three languages in the opening day. In the United States, it collected $5,423 from the Thursday night premiere (4 August) and $27,314 in the opening day, coming second place among the Indian releases (behind Pellichoopulu). The film collected $118551 from 73 screens in the United States box office in the first weekend. As per opening weekend, it has collected an average amount of $1623 from each screen in the US.