Jamesh Kottakkal says Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran has been very supportive of the fashion photographer's film on football and that he is positive about getting it on track.The sports drama titled "The Beautiful Game" was announced a few years ago. Though Kottakkal, who will make his directorial debut with the film, didn't share its release date, he told IANS: "There has been a lot of positive developments in this movie as I got more time to work on it."One of the strong supporters of the film has been its lead actor Prithviraj."He has been very supportive from day one. When I approached him with this script, he immediately liked it. He was very positive about getting it on track. I was very doubtful when I approached him because he knew me only as a fashion photographer," said Kottakkal.He spent seven years on the research work of the film."I come from Malappuram. I had enough research material in my hand. I wanted to do a movie based on football as there are not many movies based on it," he said.
Earlier this year, Kottakkal and Prithviraj even teamed up for a football anthem. Prithviraj had unveiled "The Mallu Football Anthem", helmed by Kottakkal."It was Studio Mojo (a regional video entertainment network) that came up with the concept of football anthem. I wanted this anthem to be rooted to simplicity. It was a big learning experience for me," he said."I have shared a few interesting concepts with the Studio Mojo team. Hopefully, we should start working on one of the projects shortly," he added.On switching from fashion photography to directing a film, he said: "It was my interest towards direction that landed me into fashion photography. During my early days, I tried my luck as an actor but that did not work out as planned."He ended up becoming a fashion photographer instead."I got a lot of offers to shoot ad films in Malabar area," he said.