Dulquer Salmaan expected 'Lokah' to sink, but Kalyani Priyadarshan superhero film exploded into monster hit

Dubai: Malayalam actor-producer and son of Kerala acting legend Mammootty, Dulquer Salmaan, never saw this coming. The superstar, who is basking in the glory of Lokah: Chapter 1, admits he was mentally prepared for the film to be a complete disaster. Yes, you read that right.

“Honestly, we were bracing ourselves for a potential loss,” he confessed to The Hollywood Reporter India.

“Buyers weren’t lining up, and we had made peace with the idea that we might take a hit on the first film of the franchise.”

But fate had other plans. Released on August 28, the Dominic Arun-directed fantasy epic didn’t just survive—it detonated at the box office, raking in a staggering Rs1billion in its very first week. What Dulquer expected to be a sinking ship turned into a cultural tidal wave.

“This is our seventh production, and we’ve always managed to land safe. But nothing has been like Lokah. Even as an actor, none of my films have exploded like this. It’s been accepted across demographics and has now become part of pop culture. That’s what’s most exciting,” he said.

From day one, audiences across India turned the film into a phenomenon—packing theatres, flooding social media with reels, reviews, and reactions. Dulquer called the frenzy “surreal,” admitting the sheer scale of love was unlike anything he’s ever witnessed.

And with the blockbuster’s roaring success, the team’s internal chatter took a 180-degree turn. “We were all in disbelief. It just blew up. Suddenly the question changed from ‘will it work?’ to ‘what do we do about the next one?’ It’s exciting—but yeah, no pressure!” Dulquer laughed.

The film stars Kalyani Priyadarshan as Chandra, a yakshi (vampiric spirit) summoned by Moothon, the leader of a superhero league voiced by Mammootty. When Chandra travels from Sweden to Bengaluru on her mission, her arrival alters everything. Sunny (Naslen), her neighbour, falls for her but uncovers her chilling truth, while officer Nachiyappa (Sandy) is hell-bent on stopping her.

What Dulquer once thought might be his biggest flop has now become his biggest triumph—a pan-India juggernaut that shows no sign of slowing down.

While Bollywood continues to stumble with glossy misrepresentations — with Janhvi Kapoor’s jarring Malayalam accent and the gaudy “Punjabification” of Kerala in Param Sundari - a movie that released in the same weekend as 'Lokah' - sparking ridicule — Malayalam cinema is charting its own course. Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra is proving just that, smashing box-office records and drawing packed houses in the UAE and beyond.