We had plans of shooting AS in
August.It was that prithvi is
projects got delayed that it had
to wait.I was actually a bit upset
that it was not happening
despite us getting ready with everything.Coming to think of it
now,it was a blessing in disguise
for 2 factors.Ann Augustine and
Ajayan Vincent. Probably both
wouldnt have been in AS had we
shot in August. Ann is a fine actress. She has
convincingly behaved as Anjali
Menon in the movie.Hope the
freshness will be felt on screen
from Jan 28. Aji(Ajayan Vincent) is brillaint!I
dont need to say that
actually.But will be reinforce d
once you watch AS.Undoubtedly
is gonna be one of his best
works. The mood he brings to a sequence with his lighting is
spectacular.He used to give me
an apple everyday morning while
we leave for the shoot and
great shots all thru the day:) Manu Jagath, our art director
has been amazing.The value he
has added to the movie must be
there to watched.It was hard
work,tight schedules but it was
a great show. Same for Sameera Sanish,our costume
designer..sreejith guruvayur,our
make up man. Rajasekhar,out stunt master is a
great guy.I told him during the
discussions itself that I dont
want my hero to do a filmy
fight.Roy Mathew is very much
the normal guy like all of us. We thought of Rajasekhar actually
since he had done movies like
paruthiveeran,subramaniapuram
etc.He shot the chase sequence
in the first half and has to say it
was out of the world.He repeated magic with the
hydraulic rope jump,pre climax
sequence etc.While shooting the
climax when i went to him he
laughed and said.”you dont have to tell me, your hero wont
fight:) He presented me with an
expensive hat before he
left.Thank u Rajsekhar,not for
the hat but for the way you
helped me execute those difficult sequences. Dinesh was our dance master for
Ikkanum Nadakarangam. He was
coming from big movies like
Yenthiran,Paiyya,Vettaikkaran
etc. Such a simple man he is.We
became friends instantly.You are all going to see that song in a
weeks time so I dont want to
talk about it more. We shot the
song in 3 nights.It was tough
affair with foreign
dancers,plenty of junior artists..also rains to accompany!
First time I felt weak during the
shoot was when it rained for 2
nights of that song shoot.Dinesh
and his boys helped me
immensely through it and completed it in schedule. The song
has a story within it self with
character introduction of Suraj
venjara mood,vijeesh
etc.. Prithvi,Nedu mudi
venu, Ann,Police all around the party! Prithvi was having high
fever and I had to finish the
song in the said time.So much
money was at stake. I called him
up at 4 AM in the morning to do
the end dance bit.He was there in 10 minutes.He rehersed the
steps and made sure he
perfected it in an hours time.He
told me he felt better after the
dance..
His mom called me next
day and told me he was having 103 degree temperature:) It was a great production team
to support this whole stuff. AS
has been an almost impossibly
demanding script for a malayalam
production team to support. It
was not only about money,but having to learn and execute new
stuff everyday.My producer S
Sunderarajan and Production
Controller Vinod Shornur has
been great.They all agree this
has been the toughest movie of their career. Only because we
wanted to do complete justice to
the script without
compromise.Hope we have the
results on screen. And Prithvi is a delight.He lives
and breathes cinema.Long
inter actions with him during the
shoot has broadened my vision
on cinema. I am sure Roy Mathew
will go down as one among his notable roles. Thank you guys. For helping me
see a dream called Arjunan
Saakshi come through!! Need to write more about my
post production team. Thats for
later!
