Valayar Paramasivam, the character from the hit film Runway is one of the best roles of Dileep, in his career, so far. It was with this particular film, that Dileep got in to the league of mass hero roles and with the film turning out to be a huge success, the character also got the much needed mileage. But, not many know that the role of Valayar Paramisivam was initially offered to actor Mammootty.
The writers of the film, Udaykrishna and Sibi K Thomas had initially approached director Balu Kiriyath with the story of Runway.
The director, who was impressed with the storyline approached Mammootty for the project and the actor was also equally interested and hence allotted dates for the project.
The film was supposed to be produced by the banner Gopurachithra, owned by Balu kiriyath's brother. But, it was then that the banner suffered huge losses by taking up the distribution of the film Kattathoru Penpoovu, which failed badly at the box office. Hence, Mammootty gave back the advance amount that he had received for Valayar Paramasivam and the project was shelved.
Later, Udaykrishna and Sibi K Thomas approached director Joshiy and thus the film Runway was made with Dileep in the lead role.