‘None of us could say no to Yugi because of its strong content’

CHENNAI: It was pouring cats and dogs when the team of Yugi left from their venue to visit our office. However, they were undeterred and made it a point to reach our premise. The film was completely shot in the lockdown and the team completed the shoot even before entire restrictions were lifted. “And when Anandhi was in her family way. She was almost in her eighth month when her portions were filmed and she was still dedicated to the film,” Anandhi’s co-actor Pavithra begins with a compliment. “It is because Yugi is such a script. I refused several films because of my pregnancy and COVID scare but when Zac narrated this script I wanted to be a part of it,” adds Anandhi. Natty is one actor, who has a huge fan base for the roles he picks and chooses and the performance that comes along with it. Joju George plays the role in the Malayalam version. “I totally went by Zac’s vision and after I heard the script I understood what the character wants. There were twists and turns for every 10 minutes in the story and each character has its own perception. Zac has woven the thread really well. The ending was beautiful as well and obviously I had to say yes to him,” he says with a smile.

Director Zac, quietly listens to his co-stars and then joins the conversation and says that he wanted it to be bilingual from the beginning. “As soon as I locked Yugi’s script, I wanted to shoot it simultaneously as a bilingual. In Malayalam Sharaf u Dheen and Joju George play Kathir’s and Natty’s roles respectively. The producers had faith in the script and agreed that it should be made bilingual. Both Tamil and Malayalam casts shot in Chennai on the same sets and it was lovely to watch them all bond,” says the debutant filmmaker. “Once we finished our shoot, the Malayalam actors walked into the sets. That also gave us some time to relax,” says Natty.

Though Anandhi and Pavithra do not have any combination scenes, Pavithra says, “Anandhi has performed beautifully. It is unfortunate that I did not have any combination scenes with her.” Anandhi was taken by surprise and asked Pavithra, “None of us have watched the film yet. But have you seen it Pavithra?” “I was fortunate enough to see it during the dubbing. Though we didn’t shoot together we are having a great time together promoting this movie. In fact, all four of us are having a great time,” adds Pavithra as the team waits for the rain to recede. Pavithra starts petting kittens on our campus and plays with them before she leaves.