Actor Sasikumar’s next film Vetrivel is gearing up to hit screens soon. City Express caught up with the film’s director Vasanthamani for a one-on-one. Excerpts follow...
What is Vetrivel all about?
Vetrivel is the name of Sasikumar’s character in the film. The story takes place in Thanjavur district, near Pattukottai. It is about a teacher and her two sons. The elder son is played by Sasikumar and the younger is played by a newcomer Anant Nag, who has acted in a few Malayalam projects. The story starts with a small issue that arises between the two brothers.
Is the film’s story based on a true incident?
No, but it is a story that’s close to reality. I would call it a story of the soil. I am from the Thanjavur region and I came up with this story based on the people there, their lifestyles and the situations they face.
Tell us about the other members of this film’s cast.
There are three heroines in my film. Mia George plays one of them. She plays a Malayali girl who works in an office of the Agriculture Department. Nikhila plays rural woman, while the third heroine is Varsha, who plays Anant Nag’s romantic interest.
Does Vetrivel carry a message?
In life, one experiences all kinds of emotions and thoughts. But at one point, we need to let go and move on. The only thing that a person does not forget is enemity. Vetrivel will urge society as a whole to even forget enemity and betrayal and move on. The point I emphasise is to not be intent on punishing those who have wronged you, but be particular about forgetting it (the wrong) and living your life.
You are making your debut as a director in the Tamil film industry with Vetrivel. Tell us how you started your journey.
I entered the film industry in 1996. Today, I have finally succeeded in becoming a director. When I came to Chennai for the first time, I didn’t know anybody here. I had only one director’s address and when I got to know that he wasn’t doing a film, I didn’t know where to go. I then ran into some people I shouldn’t have met. I suffered a lot, and by 1997, I concluded, ‘if this is what cinema is, I don’t want to be a part of it’. I then went to Dubai to work. There, I would watch Malayalam films. Totally impressed, I decided that I was cut out for cinema and returned to Chennai to direct a film.
Being a B Com graduate, I decided to sustain myself by working on whatever I work I could find until I got an opportunity in the film industry. But finding a job was tough. I am into poetry and would write scripts and poetry. So, I began getting opportunities in TV, but it was director T P Gajendran who gave me my first opportunity to work on a film.
I worked as his assistant for Banda Paramasivam (2003). Slowly, I started working on other films, and at one point, after I completed work on 11 films, my friend Neason, the director of Vijay’s Jilla (2014), gave me an opportunity to co-direct that film. After that, I got this opportunity because of my friend Palaniappan. He made me meet his friend Ravi, who is also the producer of Vetrivel. He agreed to produce this film immediately after hearing the script. Not just that, as I had to go to my native place for some urgent work, he narrated the script to Sasikumar sir and got him on board.