Filmmakers Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan of Qube Cinema are joining hands to present the Tamil film anthology Navarasa, a nine-part series that is all set to premier on the OTT platform Netflix. The filmmakers have revealed that the entire income from the series will be given to workers in the Tamil film industry, who have been jobless over the last few months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The directors associated with the project will not be taking any remuneration.
“The relief and support from the film will reach over 10,000 deserving beneficiaries across the industry, starting from February 2021 for up to six months. To effectively identify and reach the beneficiaries and their families, we turned to director RK Selvamani, president of the Film Employees Federation of South India [FEFSI],” Mani Ratnam and Jayendra were quoted as saying by The Hindu.
The anthology, based on the Indian concept of the nine human emotions such as anger, courage, laughter and love, brings together the finest talent in the Tamil film industry. Actor Arvind Swami (in his directorial debut), Gautham Menon, Bejoy Nambiar, Karthick Naren, Karthik Subbaraj, Ponram, KV Anand, Halitha Shameem and Rathindran R Prasad will be directing each of the nine episodes. The anthology seems to be an interesting mix of genres and filmmakers.
The anthology stars Suriya, Revathi, Nithya Menen, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Aishwarya Rajesh, Arvind Swami, Suriya, Siddharth, Vijay Sethupathi, Prakash Raj, Prasanna, Gautham Karthik, Ashok Selvan, Poorna, Riythvika, Robo Shankar, Ramesh Thilak and Sananth. Music directors include AR Rahman, D Imman, Ghibran, Arul Dev, Karthik, Ron Ethan, Govind Vasantha and Justin Prabhakaran. PC Sreeram, Santosh Sivan, Balasubramaniem, Manoj Paramahamsa, Abinandhan Ramanujam, Shreyaas Krishna, Harshvir Oberai, Sujith Sarang, V Babu, Viraj Singh are handling the cinematography. Pattukottai Prabhakar, Selvaa, Madhan Karky and Someetharan have been roped in as writers.
For director Gautham Menon’s episode, shooting has begun with actor Suriya. The duo is working together once again after more than a decade and the latest report is that Surya plays a musician in the episode. The shooting, which commenced in Chennai, featured Suriya sporting long hair.
While Bejoy Nambiar’s episode stars Vijay Sethupathi, Prakash Raj, Revathi, Siddharth, Parvathy Thiruvothu are part of Rathindran’s episode. Arvind Swami and Prasanna will star in Karthik Naren’s story while Aishwarya Rajesh is part of KV Anand’s episode. Bobby Simha will star in Karthik Subbaraj’s episode while Gautham Karthik, Saravanan, Robo Shankar are part of Ponram’s episode of the anthology.
Meanwhile, Mani Ratnam is back on the sets of his upcoming magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, which is based on Kalki’s epic Tamil novel of the same name. The shooting resumed recently in Hyderabad after nearly nine months. The cast so far includes Vikram, Jayam Ravi, Vikram Prabhu, Amitabh Bachchan, Mohan Babu and Aishwarya Rai, among others. Aishwarya will be seen playing dual roles in the highly anticipated project, according to trusted sources.
(Content provided by Digital Native)