{"id":36895,"date":"2026-08-10T17:50:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36895"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:50:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:50:57","slug":"best-friend-forever-boards-tiff-midnight-madness-indian-title-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=36895","title":{"rendered":"Best Friend Forever Boards TIFF Midnight Madness Indian Title \u2018Half\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>EXCLUSIVE<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/best-friend-forever\/\" id=\"auto-tag_best-friend-forever\" data-tag=\"best-friend-forever\">Best Friend Forever<\/a> has boarded international sales rights to Malayalam-language vampire revenge action-thriller <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/half\/\" id=\"auto-tag_half\" data-tag=\"half\">Half<\/a><\/em> ahead of its world premiere in <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/toronto\/\" id=\"auto-tag_toronto\" data-tag=\"toronto\">Toronto<\/a>\u2019s Midnight Madness section.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The acquisition marks a rare crossover play for an Indian genre cinema to land a European sales agent and a Midnight Madness slot months ahead of its home-market release, rather than after building a domestic track record first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Produced by Kerala-based Fragrant Nature Film Creations, <em>Half<\/em> is directed and co-written by Samjad with Praveen Viswanath, who previously made waves together with 2024 Malayalam psychological mystery-thriller <em>Golam<\/em> (Amazon Prime). It stars Ranjith Sajeev, Aiswarya Raj, Abbas and Amala Paul, alongside Srikanth Muruli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Half<\/em> follows twin half-blooded vampires (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj) as they wage war with desert highway hijackers in a gory martial arts Indian western from<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Choreographer Very Tri Yulisman (<em>The Raid 2<\/em>, <em>The Night Comes for Us<\/em>) spent months training the cast to perform their own stunts and built custom camera rigs to shoot the fight sequences in-camera. Members of Yulisman\u2019s team were also involved in the recent hit <em>The Furious<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>Half<\/em> is a fresh take on two genre classics, seamlessly blending the revenge thriller and vampire film with expertly choreographed fight sequences and top-tier production value. The Midnight Madness crowd is in for a brutally fun ride. We can\u2019t wait to unleash it!,\u201d said Best Friend Forever co-founders Martin Gondre and Charles Bin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The film is produced by Anne Sajeev and Sajeev P.K. for Fragrant Nature Film Creations, the Kerala-based banner behind the hit Mohanlal-starrer, <em>Pranayam<\/em> (2011), and the Sufi-themed romantic drama <em>Qalb<\/em> (2024).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Excel Entertainment, in association with AA Films, will present and distribute <em>Half<\/em> across North <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/india\/\" id=\"auto-tag_india\" data-tag=\"india\">India<\/a>, marking Excel\u2019s first collaboration with the Malayalam film industry. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Best Friend Forever\u2019s TIFF slate also features Cannes Un Certain Regard prize winner <em>Elephants in the Fog<\/em>, which plays in the Centrepiece sidebar, with other current sales titles including Annecy Grand Prix Contrechamp and Fantasia winner <em>Blaise<\/em>; Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Screenplay winner <em>Nina Roza<\/em>; and the animated titles <em>Chimney Town: Frozen in Time<\/em> and <em>Papaya<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EXCLUSIVE: Best Friend Forever has boarded international sales rights to Malayalam-language vampire revenge action-thriller Half ahead of its world premiere in Toronto\u2019s Midnight Madness section. The acquisition marks a rare crossover play for an Indian genre cinema to land a European sales agent and a Midnight Madness slot months ahead of its home-market release, rather&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/RL04_SH_02.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}