Manjummel Boys: 900-Feet Deep Guna Caves Recreated For Soubin Shahir's Film In Godown - Here's How

Malayalam language survival thriller Manjummel Boys has been taking the box office by storm for its convincing premise, inspired from a real-life incident. However, the Guna Caves shown in the film - the crucial backdrop to the film's narrative - were actually recreated by the production after taking careful references from the actual site.

Recreating the Guna Caves from scratch

In an interview with Onmanorama, Manjummel Boys' production designer Ajayan Chalissery, opened up about the team's biggest creative challenge - recreating the Guna Caves. Chalissery revealed how as the Guna Caves are a restricted site, they were only briefly allowed access to it for referencing. Not being able to shoot in the caves, the production team had to make a mock set for the same. 

The visit to the Guna Caves, as per Chalissery, saw the team dip down about 80 feet as they studied the atmosphere, texture and terrain. The replica of the Guna Caves, which is what is actually shown in the film, was then recreated in a godown in Perumbavoor. Besides the actual process, another challenge faced by the team was making the atmosphere look as realistic as possible without going over budget. For context, Manjummel Boys has reportedly been mounted on a budget of ₹5 crore.

Manjummel Boys box office report

Manjummel Boys has effortlessly added its name to this year's slowly growing list of sleeper hits. As per a Sacnilk report, the survival thriller's domestic collections have come in at ₹15.5 crores over week one at the theatres. The same report places the film's worldwide collections around ₹35  crores. This essentially puts the film's overseas collections as more than its domestic collections, a commendable feat. For context, Manjummel Boys' overseas collections currently stand at ₹16.65 crores. 

Manjummel Boys, directed by Chidambaram, features an ensemble cast of Soubin Shahir, Sreenath Bhasi, Khalid Rahman and Jean Paul Lal. Parava Films and Sree Gokulam Cinemas have bankrolled the project with Sushin Shyam giving the music for the same.