WATCH: Mohanlal’s FIFA World Cup video trends No. 1 on YouTube

When actor Mohanlal spoke to director T.K. Rajeev Kumar regarding the possibility of doing something on the football World Cup in Qatar, the latter felt a song would perhaps be a good idea. After doing some research, he felt the well-documented craze for football in Malappuram district, in northern Kerala, could be a nice theme for the song.

That was three months ago. On Monday, Rajeev found that the video, Tribute to World Cup Football, Qatar 2022,had already scored a stunning goal. It was trending as No. 1 on YouTube.

The video has attracted 5.6 lakh views within 17 hours of its release. “We could not have imagined that it would become such a big hit within a day,” Rajeev tells Sportstar over phone from Doha, where the song was released at a function on Sunday.

Besides Malappuram’s passion for the beautiful game, the district’s unique tradition of seven-a-side football is also a dominating theme in the song, which is rendered by Mohanlal. He has also featured in it.

“When I started doing the research for the song, I thought the ‘sevens’ football needed to be in focus,” says Rajeev, the director of films like Chanakyan and Pavithram. “I had gone to Malappuram and stayed there for a few days to speak to footballers, like U. Sharaf Ali (former Indian captain), who have also appeared in the video.”

One of the things you would notice about the video is its overall production quality. That isn’t surprising, for the crew includes some of the big names from Malayalam cinema, like cinematographer Sudeep Elamon, editor Don Max, choreographer Brinda and production designer Santhosh Raman. It is produced by Antony Perumbavoor under the banner of Aashirvad Cinemas.

The song is composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab, the winner of this year’s Kerala State Film Award for best music. Krishnadas Panki has written the lyrics.