Dulquer Salmaan’s Malayalam cop drama Salute not at Rotterdam after all

Contrary to earlier reports, the upcoming Malayalam-language cop drama Salute, starring Dulquer Salmaan, has not been selected for the 51st International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in The Netherlands.

The festival is being held online between 26 January and 6 February this year in response to concern about the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Directed by Rosshan Andrrews, Salute has been written by the writer duo Bobby and Sanjay and features Dulquer in his first role as a police officer. The Indian Express newspaper had reported that jury members who watched the film before the final selection at the festival praised Andrrews’s direction and Dulquer's performance.

However, Salute is not in the final list of films being screened at the festival though 10 films from India, including Mahesh Narayanan’s Malayalam feature Maalik, will be showcased at the event.

Earlier, Dulquer had earlier shared the trailer for the film on Twitter, writing, “Lies. Truth. Justice. Aravind Karunakaran is here to blaze his way to your heart!”

Over the years, several Malayalam films have been screened at IFFR. In 2017, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Sexy Durga (2018) won the Hivos Tiger award at the festival.