L2: Empuraan director Prithviraj Sukumaran discusses how he found apt locations for the film

Prithviraj Sukumaran; (right) Mohanlal leads the film

Instead of its scheduled unveiling on March 20, the trailer of L2: Empuraan was released on Wednesday night, following its online leak. With the sequel to Lucifer (2019), director Prithviraj Sukumaran takes the story of Mohanlal's Stephen Nedumpally ahead as he returns to save Kerala from the nexus of crime and politics. The director spent over a year travelling to multiple countries and scouting locations to ensure the actioner matched the grand scale he had imagined. More importantly, Sukumaran wanted the film to have as little green-screen shots as possible. "I wanted to go to real locations and shoot as much as possible practically, staying away from CGI unless absolutely necessary. It took me close to a year-and-a-half of travelling to finalise where and how we were going to shoot the film. Additionally, securing permission to shoot in foreign countries was complicated, as many sequences involved large-scale stunts, explosions, and special effects," he recalls.

After an extensive recce, L2: Empuraan was shot across India, the US, the UK, United Arab Emirates, and Iraq. "One of the most demanding aspects was finding the right locations. When people watch the film, I believe they will realise its vast scope," says the director of the March 27 offering that will be released in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada.