‘There was no fixed budget for Bigil’

Archana Kalpathi meets us at her office a few hours before Bigil gets censored with U/A. Bankrolled by her banner AGS Entertainment, Vijay’s Bigil is one of the most-anticipated films of 2019. “The response has been overwhelming right from the day we started Bigil. Ahead of the release, there is so much positivity around the project,” she tells us. Without giving away the storyline, Archana tells us that Bigil talks about women empowerment. “It will not only give out a positive impact to people watching it. The film will also change the mindset on the way men look at women in our society. Vijay sir’s dialogues on women empowerment will have a lot of takeaways and that is one of the reasons we are proud to be associated with the project. After watching the film, it will make you think. If you chalk out the names of good films that you have watched, they would have made you think even after you walked out of the theatre,” Archana explains.

A mother, wife and an entrepreneur, Archana came on board for Bigil as the creative producer of AGS Entertainment. Elaborating on this role, she says, “It was my dad, who zeroed in on the script. I am more into numbers. When it came to Bigil, I knew that it will be a commercially viable venture. Beyond that, I strongly believed that more than the numbers, the film should have a good content for the audience. That way, I’m confident that Bigil will engross them.”

There were several rumours that the film overshot the budget during the making. “I can tell you n number of rumours that revolved during Bigil’s making. This is the first time that our production house is venturing into sports genre. So, we never had a fixed budget for Bigil. We were working for 20 hours a day and we fix the budget according to the scenes that will be shot the next day. I will know what the budget is when I make another sports film.” Bigil will release along with Karthi’s Kaithi on October 25. Archana is unperturbed. “We are confident about our product. Only people who are insecure worry about the competition,” she concludes.