Noted writer Unni R has stated that he regrets writing the screenplay for the 2016 movie 'Leela'. He made the comment during an interaction with the audience at the Malabar Literature Festival (MLF) held in Kozhikode. 

Leela, directed by Ranjith, was based on a short story with the same title published in the Mathrubhumi weekly. Biju Menon played the lead role in the movie. Parvathy Nambiar, Vijayaraghavan, Suresh Krishna, Indrans, Sudheer Karamana, Jagadish and Priyanka played other key roles.

While responding to a query on whether a story loses its soul while being adapted into a movie, Unni R pointed out that “Leela was good when it came out as a short story, but making a movie out of it was a bad idea. I should not have done that. I was not at all satisfied with the output. That story was better left untouched. I think it is better not to adapt our own stories into movies. Even now, many people ask me to lend my stories for adaptation into the movies. But I fear they might lack the soul when adapted as a movie.”

Ozhivudivasathe Kali, Kaali Nadakam and Kottayam-17 are a few other famous short stories written by Unni R. He has written screenplays for movies including Big B, Anwar, Chaappa Kurishu, Munnariyippu and Charlie.