TR sir never meant to hurt Dhansika: Meera Kathiravan

Vizhithiru is Meera Kathiravan’s second film after Aval Peyar Thamizharasi. It’s a film that was shot by 2015 but couldn’t be released due to “unavoidable circumstances”. And now, it’s been scheduled to release this week, but Meera Kathiravan thinks it’s likely that it may get postponed again owing to the ongoing theatre strike in protest against the levying of a local tax by the Chennai Corporation. He says, “I am part of a WhatsApp group in which Vidiyal Raju, who has got the theatrical rights of this film, posted that no films will be releasing this week. Personally, I haven’t heard anything yet.”

Meera Kathiravan may not know about the release of the film, but he’s confident about its quality. “The film is about the city’s nightlife and involves four main characters, and how they end up meeting eventually. The entire film unfolds in one night and reflects the diverse set-up of our society,” he says.

Krishna plays a villager, while Dhanshika is paired opposite Vidaarth in this film. Venkat Prabhu is playing a cameo too. “He plays a visually-challenged dubbing artiste and baby Sara plays his daughter. Their track will be interesting. He’s a single parent in the story,” he says.

Meera Kathiravan was inspired by a couple of real-life incidents in writing this story. “I also decided to bring in four different genres into a single film.” Incidentally, seven music directors—GV Prakash, Vijay Antony, C Sathya, Santhosh Narayanan, Thaman, T Rajhendherr, and Alphonse—have singing credits in the film’s album by Sathyan Mahalingam. Meera Kathiravan is excited about one song sequence that features T Rajhendherr, Dhanshika, and Vidaarth.

Given the story is about events that unfold in a single night, the challenge was in maintaining continuity, as “most of the film was shot at night. It was also hard to get the dates of all the artistes, given how busy they all were.”

I ask him about the TR-Dhansika controversy at the recent press event organised to promote the film. Meera Kathiravan says it was a complete misunderstanding. “TR sir never meant to hurt Dhanshika, but things escalated quickly. I know him for some time. After the event, I explained to him that Dhanshika didn’t fail to mention his name on purpose.”

He further says that only one part of the video went viral. “Nobody has seen the entire video. Summa jovial-a TR sir ellarayum kalaaicharu. Every artiste who was on stage knew that too,” he says. “But please note that I am not defending whatever he spoke. As a director, I saw that both Dhanshika and TR sir shared a great rapport on the sets, which is apparent in the film. In fact, she plays an ardent fan of his in the film,” he says.