Narrated by veteran actor Mammootty, the show travels across the State, speaking to people about their relationship with football and the various festivities following the quadrennial tournament.
“To be frank, I wasn’t a football person until I made this documentary,” says filmmaker Nyx Lopez on a call from Kochi, when asked about his latest directorial, Panthadikkaam, a five-episode docu-series about Keralam ’s kinship with the sport, during the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The film begins with Vysakh SR, captain of India’s first national amputee football team, narrating his love for the game and how an accident changed his life forever. Vysakh, who lost a leg at 13, is a consistent presence throughout the show and is an integral emotional cog in the documentary.
He continues, “We have been watching him since childhood and our expectations were high when we set out to work with him. He hasn’t done exclusive narrations before, and even though AI options are available to clone his voice, which have been used in the past, nothing could match his tone and modulation. Our brief was simple; we wanted it to be like someone in our neighbourhood telling Malayalis what football means to us. The director points out that, despite not being publicly associated with the sport that much, the actor often played exhibition matches and supports all sports. “He has his own way of enjoying the game. While we were at his residence for the recording, he even showed us his VR gaming console, where he plays football games.”
The team of nearly 15 members began shooting in July in Kozhikode and made their way to other districts. Nyx, known for directing the music video of the viral track ‘Pacha Parishkari’ by Jay Stellar and ThirumaLi, was approached to direct the series after ZEE Entertainment Private Limited became the Indian broadcaster for the tournament. “Sangeetha (Janachandran, producer) was contacted by the team to explore the possibility of creating a documentary. But they wanted something between a show and a documentary. It was they who suggested Mammootty, and when I heard the name my knees started shaking,” recalls Nyx. Panthadikkaam was meant to release during the World Cup, which took place in June and July, in the United States, Mexico and Canada. However, as the filming progressed, the team decided to include celebrations surrounding the semifinals and final. “All my teammates were big football fans. As I travelled for the documentary, I started becoming a fan of so many people and teams. My writer, Geetartha AR, helped me identify these stories and tie them together in the end instead of starting the shoot with preconceived expectations,” explains Nyx, who has also composed music for the award-winning Telugu film, Narudi Brathuku Natana .
They didn’t realise how big the football culture in Keralam is, until they saw videos on Instagram,” he says. “When we told the streaming platform about onboarding a narrator, we were looking at what David Attenborough did with the show, Our Planet .
