Prithviraj Reveals More to Come in ‘Lucifer’ Trilogy

New Delhi, Jan 30 (NationPress) Filmmaker-actor Prithviraj Sukumaran has disclosed that the complete narrative surrounding the Mohanlal-led “Lucifer” cannot be fully explored in the upcoming sequel “L2: Empuraan”, and that there remains much more to uncover in the third installment.

When questioned about whether some mysteries regarding Mohanlal’s enigmatic character would be unveiled in “L2: Empuraan”, which is set to premiere on March 27, Prithviraj responded to IANS: “There is a part three too, you know. So I can't tell you the entire story in part two, but you're going to get a lot more information about who and what these characters are in part two. And part two has its own plot.”

He emphasized that “L2: Empuraan” will function as a standalone film for new viewers who haven’t experienced “Lucifer” yet.

“So this is actually, for people who have not seen part one, this will just be a standalone film, and you will still enjoy it as a start-to-finish story. But yes, for people who have seen part one, I'm assuming that some of the throwbacks, some dialogues that the characters speak to each other, will hold more resonance if you know what happened in part one,” the actor explained.

He continued: “Even otherwise, we're very keen that this should still serve its purpose as a standalone film, and I think it does. You will get a lot more information about who these characters are. But obviously, there is still a lot more to be told in part three as well.”

The inaugural chapter “Lucifer” debuted in 2019 and shattered numerous box office records for Malayalam cinema, surpassing the ₹50 crore milestone in just four days, ₹100 crore in eight days, and ₹150 crore in merely 21 days after its release. It became the quickest Malayalam film to achieve all three benchmarks.

With high expectations for “L2: Empuraan” stemming from the success of its predecessor, does Prithviraj feel any pressure?

The 42-year-old star replied promptly: “Yeah, see, the pressure is all outside. You know, you can't let that pressure dictate how you make the film. And one thing that I would like to bring to your notice, which I think most of the viewers in Kerala already know, is that this is not a part two that was made as an afterthought, as a follow-up to the success that part one had.”

“Even when we were writing part one, we knew that it was going to be a three-film series. We knew that the entire story can only be told in three parts,” he added.

He admitted he was uncertain about part one’s success.“But of course, when we made part one, we didn't say that because we didn't know if part one was going to work. You know, unless it worked, part two was not going to happen. So when part one released, at the success celebration of part one, we did say that there will be two more films following it in the same franchise,” he stated.

“So it was always written as a three-film series and a three-film franchise. And as a filmmaker, I thought it was very important for me to keep telling myself that regardless of how successful the film is, it's going to be a three-film franchise. So that's what I've done, and I hope people like what they see.”

“L2: Empuraan”, also known as L2E, is an action thriller. It serves as the second part of a planned trilogy following the 2019 film Lucifer. The film is co-produced by Lyca Productions and Aashirvad Cinemas.

It features Prithviraj, Indrajith Sukumaran, Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier, Saniya Iyappan, Saikumar, Baiju Santhosh, Fazil, and Sachin Khedekar reprising their roles from the original.