Samrajyam

Samrajyam (1990)

സാമ്രാജ്യം

Alexander, a powerful mafia leader, faces several trials and tribulations while trying to juggle his estranged relationship with his mother who abandoned him, while trying to rule the underworld.

Date of release
1990-06-22
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (6)
Runtime
2h 1m
Genres
Thriller, Action
Director
Jomon
Collection
Samrajyam Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Samrajyam (transl. Empire) is a 1990 Indian Malayalam-language gangster film directed by Jomon. The film stars Mammootty as Alexander, a powerful underworld don. It narrates the story of his rise and fall in the criminal world. The supporting cast includes Madhu, Captain Raju, Ashokan, Vijayaraghavan and Srividya.

Production

In an interview with Mathrubhumi in 2020, Jomon spoke about how he developed the story for Samrajyam. He said that he had always wanted to make a film about organised crime and the mafia, inspired by real-life incidents that had fascinated him since childhood.

Jomon began his career as an associate director under I. V. Sasi in the late 1980s and worked as the sixth assistant director on 1921 (1988). During shooting breaks, he narrated a story idea to Mammootty, who was impressed and encouraged him to develop it further. Jomon later shared the story with Mammootty and Joshiy on the sets of Mahayanam (1989), and Joshiy found the concept "interesting", advising him to turn it into a full-fledged script.

Jomon recalled, "After that, I started writing the script while staying at a lodge in Madras. A month later, when Mammooka arrived at the Woodlands Hotel in Madras, I met him with the completed script."

After reading the script in one sitting, Mammootty felt that it needed a more experienced screenwriter and introduced Jomon to Dennis Joseph. However, Joseph was occupied with other projects and suggested his assistant, Shibu Chakravarthy, who was also a lyricist, to work on the script. Chakravarthy had previously collaborated on the screenplays of Mammootty starrers such as Manu Uncle (1988) and Adharvam (1989), both written by Dennis Joseph.

Once the script was finalised, Jomon began searching for a producer to finance the project. During his time in Chennai, he had worked with Arifa Hassan of Arifa Enterprises on several films as an assistant director. According to Jomon, Hassan had recently faced several box-office failures and was in a "state of despair." When Mammootty learned that Hassan would be producing the film, he was initially hesitant, as the two had fallen out after thei…

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