By: Entertainment DeskKochi | November 19, 2025 08:43 PM IST 4 min readVinayan's Boyy Friennd featured a scene and a subsequent song in which Mohanlal and Mammootty were portrayed visiting a college as chief guests for an event. (Screenshot: YouTube/MovieWorldMalayalamMovies)Renowned for not mincing words, Vinayan has often courted controversies with his unfiltered nature and unwillingness to yield to the mandates of affluent stars. As a result, he has frequently had run-ins with various superstars, and one incident even led to the eventual split of the Malayalam Cine Technicians Association (MACTA), when he was its general secretary, and the formation of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA). He has also locked horns with the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) many times. Recently, Vinayan revealed that he was banned from the Malayalam film industry for about two years in the 2000s after he used computer graphics to digitally depict Mohanlal and Mammootty in his film Boyy Friennd (2005).For the unversed, Boyy Friennd featured a scene and a subsequent song in which Malayalam superstars Mohanlal and Mammootty were portrayed visiting a college as chief guests for an event. With the help of body doubles and computer-generated imagery (CGI), the director brought the Big Ms to the screen. Almost like a move to play it safe, Vinayan also included a shot in which the college students eventually realised that the two were impersonators and exposed them by removing their Mohanlal and Mammootty “masks”. However, the creation of the Big Ms using technology landed the director in a major row.Also Read | Mohanlal apologised to Meera Vasudevan before shooting controversial scene in Thanmathra in nude: ‘He was wearing a petticoat before the shot’During the teaser launch of his upcoming AI film Manikandan: The Last Avatar, Vinayan revealed that he was banned from the Malayalam industry for two years after this incident. “My Athisayan (2007) had a concept similar to the Hulk, where a small boy becomes big. At that time, it took several years to make a Hollywood movie with that effect. In our industry, with small budgets and tight release schedules, I couldn’t get the kind of graphics I wanted. In Boyy Friennd, I featured Mammootty and Mohanlal through CGI, which became a huge issue. They banned me for one or two years,” he said, Mathrubhumi reported.Vinayan added, “Today, anyone can create anyone digitally. Mammootty and Mohanlal could appear in 100 films a year if they simply provided their photos. They could act with expressions beyond what they’ve ever done and perform action sequences effortlessly. This is the era of AI. Our actors are immensely talented, but the new technology allows technicians to craft performances that surpass reality. The future of cinema and technology belongs to those who can create superior performances at their fingertips.”Commenting on how the technology has advanced, Vinayan pointed out that a transition scene in his horror-comedy Akashaganga (1999), where the ghost’s face transforms into that of a cat, could be executed today at roughly 1/24th of the original cost. “When I was making Akashaganga in 1999, 26 years ago, there was a shot where the ghost Mayuri’s face was morphed to look like a cat’s. Back then, that morphing cost Rs 12,000 per second. Today, it’s just around Rs 300 to Rs 500 per second. While making Athbhutha Dweepu (2005), we had to make Jagathy Sreekumar dance as a dwarf. The hardships we went through then were immense. Today, we could make him perform any dance just by providing a photo of him and a dwarf. The possibilities are beyond imagination,” he added.Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd