Two years since the release of Amara Kaaviyam (2014), Jeeva Shankar is back with political-thriller Yaman, with Vijay Antony in the lead. The film marks their reunion after Naan (2012), and the director describes it as his career’s toughest project.
In a chat with CE, he said, “It was tough not just as a director but also as a cinematographer. I took 14 months to finish the script as I wasn’t in a hurry to make the film. There are about 14 important characters and it’s not easy to move the story forward with so many actors. You need to give them ample screen presence, too.”
This story is about the rise of a politician from a nobody, and it throws the spotlight on the other side of the fence.
Talking about the film which also stars Mia George, he said, “Usually, everything that happens around a leader is misunderstood. People have wrong notion about politics, without quite understanding what really happens, or they fail to analyse from a politician’s standpoint.” He also clarified that the script was not written exclusively for Vijay Antony. “When I wrote the script, I had a few options. Post Amara Kaaviyam, Arya and Vijay Sethupathi were interested to work with me but I didn’t want to make a film just because somebody was interested,” he said.
Jeeva believes in a script more than a hero. “Vijay (Antony) wanted to do another film and before I started writing Yaman, he told me to consider him only as his last option.” Jeeva is all praise for the Saithan (2016) actor, and he believes he has grown confident as an actor. “When we were shooting for Naan, he had too many things on his mind. He is confident now.”
The film also stars veteran actor-producer Thiagarajan in a pivotal role but he wasn’t the original choice. “I was keen on roping in veteran Malayalam actor Sreenivasan, and I had even met him and narrated the story. As the second option, I met Thiagarajan and I felt he’d be perfect for the role.” Yaman is produced
by Lyca Productions, and it releases later this month.