WITH Thoonga Nagaram, Gaurav makes his debut as a director as well as an actor. A native of Madurai, Gaurav worked as an assistant with directors Maharajan and K S Ravikumar before making his own film. “I worked with Ravikumar sir in two movies — Jaggubhai and Aadhavan.
Only at the audio launch of Aadhavan, I met Dhayanidhi Alagiri, producer of Thoonga Nagaram. I told him that I had a script set in Madurai. He listened to it and said that I was the first person to narrate a script for two-and-a-half hours at a stretch and keep him engrossed with it,” smiles Gaurav.
Thoonga Nagaram is the first film to be produced directly by Cloud Nine Movies.
Gaurav plays one of the four heroes in the film and says, “When you love the work you do, you can never enough of it or slack. When I was narrating the character of Rajamani, the naughtiest chap among the four guys to Dhayanidhi, he suggested me to take up the character.
I was so thrilled about it, because I have always wanted to act. When the producer himself suggested me to act, I was over the moon. My codirectors helped me a lot, and the entire crew was highly supportive.” Talking about his film, Gaurav says, “Thoonga Nagaram falls under the genre of emotional thrillers. It’s about four friends — how they enjoy their lives to the fullest, till they come to know of the day they will die, and how life turns upside down after that.” Apart from Gaurav, Vimal, Bharani, Nishanth and Anjali play pivotal roles.
“One of the highlights of the film is that we have shot a song at the Chithirai Thiruvizha in Madurai. Amid huge crowds, we shot using only one camera. Even as I think about it now, it doesn’t sink in,” says Gaurav.
Just like any newcomer, Gaurav too is a bit tensed about the release of his film.
“Right from the pre-production stage till now, everything has happened in my favour, and I’m sure of the film’s success,” he says. Gaurav is now eagerly waiting to watch the movie in his hometown Madurai on the day of its release — February 4.
