Shooting for Bommai Nayagi, the upcoming Tamil film starring actor Yogi Babu in the lead role, has been completed, the makers of the film announced on social media on Wednesday.
The film is backed by filmmaker Pa Ranjith under the Neelam Productions banner. It is written and directed by filmmaker Shan, who has earlier assisted R Kannan and worked in Palme d’Or winning film Dheepan. Shan has a background in documentary filmmaking.
Speaking to Silverscreen India, Shan said that Bommai Nayagi, his debut feature film directorial, is a social drama about the fight of a father, a common man, against those who are accused of sexually assaulting his daughter.
“It is not a revenge story. The film is about how he confronts the society, system and law. It is a journey for justice that the father and child are on. At the same time, it also concentrates on the child’s recovery from the trauma,” he said.
While Yogi Babu will play the father, child artist Srimathi, who appeared in the Tamil reality show Super Singer Junior will play his daughter in the film.
“The film will also throw light on the awareness of child rights in the country,” Shan said, adding that incidents of child sexual assault are often brushed under the rug.
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“Four years ago, I came across a case, where after an attempted sexual assault involving a minor girl in a village, her father was coaxed by the local panchayat into not registering a formal complaint. The panchayat said that it would ‘bring shame’. They promised to give the family a piece of land in the village in return for not filing a complaint. The girl is now in her 20s and the father, as of four years ago, was fighting a case, alleging that the land that was promised to them has not yet been registered in their name. This got me thinking how in villages, such incidents never see the light of day and the survivors and their families are often easily compensated,” said Shan.
Shan, who wrote the script for the film four years ago, said that the story is also set in the same place where the alleged incident took place, Cuddalore.
The filmmaker added that Bommai Nayagi is based on multiple true events from across Tamil Nadu. The film is set in the early 2000s, when the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act did not exist. Bommai Nayagi is one of the deities in villages, after which the child’s character and the film is named.
The film went on floors in January and was shot by cinematographer Athisayaraj, entirely in Cuddalore. The film is currently in the post-production stage and the team is looking to release it in theatres in early 2022.
On choosing Yogi Babu to play the father, Shan said that the actor’s face is an “emotional one even when he is poker-faced”.
Other cast members include Subhadra (Jai Bhim) as the mother, Hari Krishnan (Madras), GM Kumar and SS Stanley. The film will also feature local artists from Cuddalore who were cast through auditions. RK Selva is the editor and Sundaramoorthy is the music composer of the film.