The film was a blockbuster and ran for more than 100 days in theatres. With consecutive box office hits from The News, Thalastaanam, Mafia and Ekalavyan, Suresh Gopi was catapulted to the status of a matinée idol. After the success of the 1994 blockbuster Commissioner in Andhra Pradesh, Ekalavyan was dubbed in Telugu and released as CBI Officer which also became a commercial success. The film was remade in Hindi as Singham Returns.[3][4]
Plot
Swami Amoorthananda is a psychotic holy godman with strong international connections and also runs a powerful narcotics mafia in Kerala. He also has several connections within political circles and is also a good orator, where he draws many devotees from abroad and turns them into addicts.
A series of murders at Kovalam beach invites sharp criticism of the Kerala Government and the C.M Sreedharan decides to bring Narcotics Wing Madhavan IPS to investigate the case. Arriving in Kerala from New Delhi and assisted by a smart C.I Sharath Chandran, Madhavan's aggressive way of investigation leads him to Amoorthananda's ashram, which creates a panic in the state. Amoorthananda decides to eliminate Madhavan and also plans to topple Sreedharan by appointing his aide Velayudhan as the new C.M.
Upon the orders from Amoorthananda, Mahesh Nair, a notorious terrorist named Mahesh Nair arrives in Kerala. Mahesh Nair kills Sharath Chandran, which forces Madhavan to react violently and raids the ashram and botches Amoorthananda's plot to cause a series of bomb blasts in the state. Madhavan also kills Amoorthananda and Mahesh Nair, thus saving the state from a series of blasts and communal riots.
The film was shot mostly in and around Trivandrum and Kovalam. A large part was also shot in Kozhikode. It was produced by P. V. Gangadharan for Grihalakshmi Productions. The camera was done by Ravi K. Chandran and editing by L. Bhoominathan. Rajamani did the background score, and Boban was the art director.
Casting
Initially, Shaji Kailas and scriptwriter Renji Panicker had planned to rope in Mammootty to do the lead role in this flick, while Suresh Gopi was also part of the initial star cast, but his role was that of the second hero. After hearing the script, Mammootty told Shaji Kailas that he is not impressed with the dialogues. Due to this, Shaji Kailas decided to start the film with Suresh Gopi in the lead, and the originally planned role for Suresh was later given to Siddique.
Box office
Ekalavyan became a commercial success and ran for 200 days in theatres. The film shattered many collection records and elevated Suresh Gopi to the status of the matinée idol and the second action superstar ever in Malayalam cinema after Jayan. It also helped him to fetch more action-oriented roles.[5] After the success of the original version along with Telugu and Tamil versions of Commissioner, the Telugu and Tamil versions of the film Ekalavyan which was actually released before Commissioner hit the theaters under the title CBI Officer. The film had earned Suresh Gopi the title of Supreme Star in Andhra Pradesh.[6]
Legacy
Ekalavyan was the second in a trilogy of films that established Suresh Gopi as the new superstar in the Malayalam film industry, the other two being Thalastaanam and Mafia.
