By Ashraf Padanna/Thiruvananthapuram

Superstar Mammootty’s much-awaited multilingual Pazhassi Raja, the costliest ever movie in Malayalam, will hit the theatres today with a record number of 560 prints.

Of these, 125 are in the original Malayalam version, 100 in Tamil and Telugu, 110 in Hindi, and 125 in Hindi with English subtitles for overseas release.

The Rs320mn film is produced by Chennai-based Gokulam Group.

This is also the first film of sound designer Resul Pookutty after winning an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire in January this year. He has recorded the sounds of war scenes of the movie live.

The film also has Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, Tamil film icon Kamal Hasan and Malayalam superstar Mohanlal as narrators of the prologue in different languages. Telugu star Suman and Tamil hero Sarathkumar also play important roles while Padmarpiya and Kanika take the female lead.

Directed by Hariharan, the film is written by M T Vasudevan Nair. The film’s music which was recorded in Hungary with the Hungary Symphony Orchestra is by Illayaraja.

The film narrates the heroic life of warrior king Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, known as the Lion of Kerala for the guerilla warfare that he launched against the British army with the help of his loyal Kurichiyar tribe. Mammootty, a four-time national award winner, plays the title role.

The Raja died fighting the British but the British honoured him later for bravery. “He was our enemy but he was a great warrior. We gave him a great funeral because he deserved it,” the chief of the British army said later.

The film was originally set for release on October 2 but was delayed as the Kerala government shot down a request by the producers to hike ticket rates by 100% for the first week of its release. Authorities have now reduced the entertainment tax on the tickets by 50%.