‘We shot for the film in extremely challenging conditions’

CHENNAI: Raavana Kottam team is on cloud nine as the trailer has struck a chord with the audience and has been receiving rave responses.

“Raavana Kottam has been in the making for quite sometime now. Thanks to the pandemic. It caused major delays. The film wouldn’t have been complete if not for our producer, Kannan Ravi,” says director Vikram Sugumaran.

Kannan Ravi nods his head and says, “I had complete faith in the team and left it to them. I didn’t want to interfere and never visited the sets even once. I didn’t want to disrupt the creative process. When I listened to the script, I was quite convinced. I have watched the film and found it even more convincing. Now it is for the audience to decide whether we have given them a good product.”

Shanthnu talks for the first time in the last couple of days that we have met him. “I think Raavana Kottam audio launch was the first event where the hero didn’t get a chance to speak,” he laughs before talking about the film.

“Kannan uncle is a family friend and wanted to make a film for me which is the main reason for him to venture into production. It was me, who had to take care of the budgeting and organising it on location. It wasn’t easy,” says the actor.

A still from the film

Vikram seconds him and says, “We shot for the film in Ramnad and it was indeed challenging like he says. We shot in terrible conditions. The weather was blazing hot and we filmed in thorny shrubs (karuvela maram) as the story revolves around people living there. The terrains were thorny and despite keeping pads for scenes in which Shanthnu has to be dragged, he was injured. There were venomous snakes and centipedes too,” says Vikram.

“One day, I felt some irritation on my back. I thought it was an ant bite and proceeded to shoot. After a while my entire back was full of rashes. It is when I realised I was bitten by a centipede,” says Shanthnu.

Kayal Anandhi was not the obvious choice for the female lead. “We auditioned 600 people to play the heroine,” reveals Vikram. “But I am glad I made it and it has such a strong content. The shoot was challenging but the efforts were worth it,” concludes Anandhi.