Getting to own a motorbike is a dream for any teenage boy. The sheer thrill of being in command of a pulsating, powerful and mean machine is an adrenaline rush unlike any other. But sadly for young hero Atharva, that dream will never turn into reality. The reason? “My mom hates motorbikes,” says the son of the late actor Murali. “She will never let me get my own bike.” So imagine the hero’s delight when he got to actually live his dream during the entire shoot of Irumbu Kuthirai. “I play a biker in the movie. It was shot entirely in Italy and I got to ride some amazing world class super bikes all through the shoot,” says Atharva happily.
A treat awaited him on the first day. “When I reached the location, I saw a line of super bikes in front of me. There were around 20 Ducati Super Box motorbikes and four BMWs, all ready for our shoot,” he recalls. But before the shooting began, Atharva had to undergo some training to handle the bikes them. “Thanks to the four-day training, I got familiar with the bikes. Later, I could comfortably handle them at a speed of 195 km per hour on Italy’s roads. They had up to eight gears, but I could ride only till the sixth.”
But the shoot was not without its dangers. Atharva recalls a narrow escape, “Once, the rope that attached me to the bike during a stunt, snapped. At that moment, a truck went past me. I was only a couple of feet away and luckily missed getting hit,” he says. Shot in Venice, Florence and Milan, the film stars Priya Anand who plays a Puducherry- based girl. Raai Laxmi plays a co-biker with Atharva. Directed by Yuvaraj Bose, this is the 41st film of music composer GV Prakash who teams up for the third time with Atharva. The story revolves around a boy whose life changes completely one day, when he jumps a signal on his bike. Alisha Abdullah, India’s renowned female biker has done a cameo.
Atharva is also busy with two other projects Eeti and Kanidhu. Ask him about his six pack and he says with a grin, “It’s for my look in Eeti. I prepared for one year for it, getting up at 4am everyday. Fitness has become part of my lifestyle.”