India, March 25 -- He has made his bones as an actor, but it is as a filmmaker that Prithviraj Sukumaran truly pushed the boundaries of Malayalam cinema's box office aspirations. With Lucifer, he gave the industry its first Rs.100 crore blockbuster, and now, with the sequel - L2: Empuraan - he hopes to go even bigger. Ahead of the release of the Mohanlal-starrer, Prithviraj chats with HT about the film's scale, directing his idol, and the supposed box office 'crisis' Malayalam cinema is in. (Also read: Interview | Mohanlal says even if superstar culture ends in Indian cinema, 'there will always be great actors')

"This film is the deep end of the swimming pool for us," Prithviraj says of L2: Empuraan. While the film's makers have not spec...