After the horror comedy Strawberry, lyricist-actor-director Pa Vijay is set to release his next directorial venture titled Aaruthra. The film is said to be a thriller, based on real-life incidents. Vijay plays the lead and is also the producer of the film.
Talking about the film, Vijay told Silverscreen, “I was able to write only a few socially relevant songs, so I wanted to make a film with a social message. I got encouragement after my first film received appreciation. There was an incident in Salem where a minor was gang raped. I met all the accused in the case and spoke with them. Their answers were shocking and scary. That motivated me to make the film.”
The three-minute teaser that was released recently starts by invoking Mahatma Gandhi and asks if the victims of sexual violence will ever get justice. It then cuts to a news clipping of a gang rape of a 12-year-old disabled girl – that’s the premise of the film.
The events in the film unfold inside an apartment where a young girl is seen weeping. When asked, she says she was beaten up by her master who teaches her when her mother is off to work. When the lead actor asks her why she didn’t inform her mother, she said she was threatened with death if she told someone. Vijay is next seen explaining the girl about good touch and bad touch and he later goes to the master’s house and starts beating up the 40-year-old man.
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While the director said that the movie was based on an incident that took place in Salem, the story bears close resemblance to the recent Ayanavaram incident where a child with a hearing impairment was sexually assaulted for months in the so-called safety of a Chennai’s gated community where she lived in. “My entire crew and I were shocked when we saw the news. I had planned to release the sneak peek a couple of days back, but I hesitated after the news came out,” he said. The video was finally released on July 20.
The film will have three female protagonists, including a cop and a journalist. The film in no way commercially exploits the story of a rape survivor, informs the director. “The film is a social thriller,” he said.
The film will star SA Chandrashekar, Bhagyaraj and Naan Kadavul Rajhendran in the lead roles. The female leads are Mumbai-based model Dashitha, Mehali – an actress from Kolkata, and Soni who is from Hyderabad. The film is expected to release in the second week of August.
Watch the sneak peek here: