Sarabham Press Meet report

Silverscreen goes to the Sarabham Press Meet

Sarabham is more than just a movie for its crew. For actors Naveen Chandra and Salony Luthra, it’s a dream come true. After years of struggle, the duo got a ‘big break’ when they landed the lead roles in this project. It’s a privilege to work with CV Kumar, they said; having admired all his movies. Naveen Chandra, who plays a money-hungry youth in this crime drama, claimed that he’d wanted to work with Thirukumaran Entertainment ever since he watched Soodhu Kavvum. “That was the best movie ever. And in a way, you have to hand it to Kumar sir. Only a gutsy and incredibly bold person can make such offbeat movies and find success.”

For actor Aadukalam Naren, on the other hand, it was a welcome chance to revisit his youth. The Sarabham team – mostly in their 20s – made him feel very young, he said, and that changed him for the better. The actor was recovering from a bout of illness and as a result, struggled to speak at the recent promotional event for the movie. But he persisted, in a hoarse voice, and managed to heap praise on the ‘fresh and energetic’ team. “I have played one of the main roles in this film. It’s been a really enjoyable experience and at the end of the shoot, I felt quite young!”

His co-star Naveen Chandra was in awe of Aadukalam Naren’s ‘handsome looks’. “I don’t know how he does it, but he’s always managed to look so fresh onscreen. I’m a little jealous to be honest. But, on a more serious note, I have to say I feel incredibly blessed to have worked with such an amazing team and I have only one man to thank for – my producer CV Kumar,” Naveen gushed. During the shoot, he was reportedly made to hang upside down from the fifteenth floor of a building, beaten up and generally pushed around by all the goons in the city. But the actor took it all in his stride, and was motivated to work harder and do more for his role. “I spent five days with very little sleep. Sometimes, Rajaraman sir (dialogue writer) would be reading dialogues to me and I’d be napping. We have worked really hard on this.” It was exhausting, he admitted,”but the final product looks exactly as we had visualised it.”

It was left to director Arun Mohan to explain the movie’s unusual title. “Sarabham is a Sanskrit name and it refers to a mythological creature that has the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent and of course, it also has wings. We wanted to use the Tamil version of the name – Yaali – but someone had already registered it and refused to handover the rights to us.” Arun is not new to the film scene, his father is director Anu Mohan; and he was very keen on roping in his father for a role in the movie. “Sarabham is a crime thriller and my father would have stood out like a fish out of water. I didn’t want to saddle him with a role that might not work to his credit. He’s been cheering me from the sidelines, but he’s not involved in the making of this movie.”

Arun was also extremely proud of his cast. “They were all very invested in this project and it truly made a difference.”

The music for Sarabham has been composed by Britto Michael and was released yesterday at a private radio station. The movie has been wrapped up and will hit theatres in the next two months.