Chennai, Sep 9 (IANS) Actor Melissa Raju Thomas, who rose to fame with her critically-acclaimed short film "Jaded", is thrilled to be making her feature film debut in the upcoming Nivin Pauly-starrer, "Moothon". The film is a Malayalam-Hindi bilingual.

Co-written and co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and directed by Geetu Mohandas, "Moothon" will have its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

"'Moothon' is my feature film debut and I am super excited that it is selected at one of the best film festivals globally. I am so grateful to Geetu for offering me this role and I consider myself fortunate to be able to share screen space with such talented performers like Nivin and Sobhita. Anurag Kashyap's involvement in the film takes it to another level. It's a very fresh plot, hardly explored on Indian screens," Melissa told IANS.

"Moothon" also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Shashank Arora and Roshan Mathew in pivotal roles. The film is about a 14-year-old boy, Mulla, who comes from Lakshadweep to Mumbai in search of his elder brother, Akbar. Alternating between bracing violence and heartbreaking tenderness, the film has been shot in Lakshwadeep and Mumbai's red light district of Kamathipura.

Melissa, based out of Kochi, has shifted base to Mumbai to shoot for the film.