Report by Niveda Manohar
The release of the film, Kaashmora that was initially planned for Pongal 2017, is happening earlier during Diwali this year. The film, produced by S R Prabhu for his Dream Warrior Pictures, stars Karthi, Nayanthara, Sri Divya and Vivek in prominent roles. Om Prakash is the cinematographer and V J Sabu Joseph, the editor.
Its pre-release press meet was organised at a luxury hotel in Chennai and the event saw a mix of anecdotes, reality bytes, much gushing over its visual effects – and the usual lighthearted jibes.
The technical team spoke about the detailed pre-visualization used for the war sequences: a first for Tamil cinema. Stalin, the VFX supervisor said that there were about 2000 VFX shots in the film, and they have used technology such as Virtual Reality cameras, Lidar and face scanning for the purpose.
Actor Vivek, who has a supporting role in the film, took a dig at Nayanthara and other major actresses who do not attend promotional events of their films. “They have a shrewd excuse – they claim that they wouldn’t want to jinx the film’s success by attending the promo. They should try not to jinx it by rejecting their last payments; at least that would make the producers happy,” he said.
There was much talk about Kaashmora being compared to last year’s technological success, Baahubali. Vivek said, “If only Baahubali had not released earlier, Kaashmora would have been heralded as one of Indian Cinema’s most important films.” However, director Gokul modestly asked the audience not to compare the film to S S Rajamouli’s epic. “Don’t expect a Baahubali. The production scale of that film was different. Here, the period portions last for only 30 minutes in the second half,” he said. Gokul whose previous film Idharku Thane Aasaipattai Balakumara was praised for its humor, said that although the trailers of Kaashmora seemed to suggest otherwise, 60% of the film is actually comic.
Karthi, who is seen with a tonsured head and grandiose costumes in certain portions of the film, said he was in awe of Kamal Haasan’s ability to pull off different looks. “The special makeup for my character, Raj Nayak, wouldn’t last for more than two hours. It was very challenging. I used to wonder how Kamal sir does such things,” he said.
The film will release on 28 October. It will also have dubbed releases in Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.
See event photos below:
