‘Home Away From Home is a commercial film from my kitty’

CHENNAI: Director Venkatesh Kumar’s third directorial Home Away From Home, produced by Sahara Asia Productions has won four awards in the International category at the Norway Film Festival. “My first two films, Unakkul Naan and Lightman, were art films and had no commercialism in them. I strongly feel that Home Away From Home is a commercial film adapted from Uma Balu’s short film,” Venkatesh told DT Next.

The curators of Norway Film Festival too felt the same after giving away the awards. “I am quite known in that circuit and the curators said that the film will keep the audience entertained through its runtime. When Dhananjayan sir watched the movie he felt that the commercial aspect was missing. The film can be watched as an art as well as a commercial film,” he added. Talking about the cast, he said, “French actress Manisa Tait plays the lead. She was initially apprehensive in taking up the film as she wanted to do something different. We had auditioned quite a few actresses. In the end, Manisa was convinced. The first 15 minutes of the film will have her talking in English. After that, she would talk in Tamil as well,” he revealed.