Ananthabhadram as Sivapuram in Tamil

Cinematographer-turned-director Santosh Sivan's directorial venture Ananthabhadram is the first Malayalam feature film screened using a satellite feed instead of conventional prints. It stars Prithviraj, Kavya Madhavan, Manoj K. Jayan, Riya Sen, Kalabhavan Mani, Biju Menon, Revathi and Cochin Haneefa.

Based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Sunil Parameswaran, Ananthabhadram won five awards in the Kerala State Film Awards 2005 and was a commercial success as well. In a year when most Malayalam films failed to recover costs, Ananthabhadram was one of the few commercial successes, along with Rajamanickam, Chanthupottu, Naran, Thommanum Makkalum and Udayananu Tharam.

Its song 'Pinakkamano' became the top hit among Malayalam film songs in 2005. The director used three paintings of Raja Ravi Varma as an inspiration to picturize this song, rendered by M.G. Sreekumar and Manjari.

Produced by actor Manian Pillai Raju, Ajaya Chandran Nair and Reghu Chandran Nair under the banner of Sri Bhadra Pictures, Ananthabhadram is set in the backdrop of black magic and martial arts. The story is about Ananthan (Prithviraj) who returns to his ancestral village of Sivapuram from the US to light the lamps at Shivakavu, a dark and mysterious temple of Shiva,�to fulfil�the long-standing wish of his dead mother.

Now, this film is�to be dubbed and released in Tamil as Sivapuram. The Tamil version will be produced by Sathish Kumar. Marutha Bharani has penned the dialogues and lyrics are by Piraisoodan. The movie is expected to grace theatres in Tamil Nadu soon.