Prithviraj Sukumaran Addresses The Goat Life’s Comparisons With Dhanush’s Maryan

Prithviraj Sukumaran starrer The Goat Life will make its theatrical debut on March 28. The film is based on the 2008 bestselling novel Aadujeevitham by Benyamin and follows the life of Najeeb, a Malayali immigrant labourer who finds himself forced into slavery as a goatherd on a secluded farm in Saudi Arabia. 

When the trailer of the movie released, fans noticed the film’s similarities with Dhanush’s 2013 movie Maryan. Addressing the comparison, Prithviraj stated that he and director Blessy had planned The Goat Life even before Maryan came in theatres. 

Prithviraj Sukumaran on the conception of The Goat Life

In a recent interview with the Red FM YouTube channel, Prithviraj, who plays Najeeb in Aadujeevitham, disclosed that Blessy and he plotted the movie together long before Maryan was even conceived. Additionally, he mentioned that their movie is based on the novel Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) by Benyamin, which was published in 2008.

Prithviraj Sukumaran has finally allayed the suspicions of the Tamil media and public regarding the content of his upcoming film with this significant statement. The literary works of Benyamin and the 16-year filmmaking process of filmmaker Blessy have long been known to Malayalam filmgoers. Tamil fans, however, believed that the movie was influenced by Maryan, the Dhanush film that tells the tale of a Tamil villager who fled to Sudan and survived.

The prolonged shoot of The Goat Life

The film has been in the planning and development stage for many years. Director Blessy reportedly wanted to buy the adaptation rights in 2009 and begin the production right away. However, due to budget constraints, Aadujeevitham went into production planning only in 2015. The Goat Life is mounted on a massive scale, shot at various locations across the globe from early 2018 to 2022 in five separate shoot schedules in various parts of the world, like Jordan, Algeria, The Sahara and the deserts of Wadi Rum, Jordan. Some scenes were shot in Kerala as well. 

The Aadujeevitham team was also stuck in Jordan for over 2 months when the COVID pandemic struck in 2020. The film is an international co-production, being produced by  Visual Romance Image Makers, Jet Media Production and Alta Global Media.