Ramesh Subramaniam, who is making his debut as a director in the Tamil film industry with Vil Ambu, says his film is unique. “There are two heroes in my film. One is played by Harish Kalyan and the other by Sri. Both characters are equally important. However, what is special about my film is that they don’t meet each other,” says Ramesh, taking pride that no other Tamil film has two lead characters who don’t meet each other.
He explains, “Both characters will cross one another several times and their actions will in some way or the other impact the life of the other. However, they will not be aware of it. Only we the audience will witness the way their lives are interconnected.”
The idea for the story, Ramesh says, came from his belief that everybody is connected. “It is just that we blame fate, not knowing that whatever has happened has been caused by another person,” he says.
Stating that he got the idea for the film from an accident, Ramesh says, “I was once riding my bike in my native place when the car in front suddenly stopped. I was taken by surprise and although I jammed my brakes, I couldn’t stop my vehicle from ramming into to the car. We got into an argument. However, after a point, I left for my place. It was only when I thought about the whole incident with a calm mind that I began wondering why the car driver had jammed his brakes in the first place. It must have been to avoid a cyclist in front of him. So, the person who caused the accident would not have known about me just as I did not know that it was he who caused the accident. This was the basis of the idea behind the script.”
In the film, Harish plays a visual communication student who is interested in photography while Sri plays a slum dweller in Coimbatore. “We actually shot the sequences in a slum in Coimbatore,” says the director who also says that his film has three heroines — Chandini, Samskriti and Shrushti Dange.
“Shrushti Dange plays Harish Kalyan’s love interest in the film while Samskriti plays Sri’s lover. Harish Kalyan’s father plays the role of his dad in the film too,” says Ramesh, who is a close friend of director Suseenthiran, producer of the film, which is all set to hit screens on February 12. “Suseenthiran and I were roommates for almost 12 years. We are good friends, and yes, he is the producer of this film,” says Ramesh Subramaniam.
Ask Ramesh why he chose to name his film ‘Vil Ambu’ and he says, “Everybody at some point proves to be an arrow. On other occasions, they serve to be the bow. We wanted to stress on the fact that our roles are never permanent. If you are a bow one day, you will be an arrow the next.”