The first thing that you notice when you walk into a crowded room is that godawful stink. The kind that hits you when more than a hundred people are closeted together for a long period of time. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case at Athithi‘s audio launch. But, we did know we were in for a packed house. The dozens of posh cars parked outside the venue, jostling for space with the more homely looking press vehicles said as much. As we drew in a breath and prepared to fight our way in, we were quite surprised to smell an olfactory marvel. Quite the olfactory marvel. And, we soon spotted the source. Men in tight-fitting clothes were walking the perimeter of the room, holding canisters of air freshener; spraying indiscriminately at anything and everything. So much so that Aththi‘s director, Bharathan, was the first to receive a face-full. He coughed till his eyes watered; sneezed a couple of times and thankfully, took it all in his stride. But the men’s mission to make the room an odour-free zone, did have some effect; for soon enough, we started to smell like a cross between a perfume store and an orchid garden.
Moving on to other important things, the audio launch saw a host of popular directors in attendance. And everyone, right from Karu Pazhaniappan to Suseenthiran, were quite appreciative of music director Bharadwaj’s contribution to the Tamil film industry. Karu Pazhaniappan professed to be a great fan of his music and wished him luck, while director Vikraman – not the one to be outdone – passionately declared that he would sign Bharadwaj for his next movie. But before Suseenthiran could be given a chance to top these claims, the emcee thankfully took over; and requested the director of the movie, Bharathan, to say a few words. “I don’t know what to say, because I didn’t know they will let me speak so soon,” the director admitted in a very candid moment, before talking about his experience, “I have worked on many films as the screenwriter and I did Azhagiya Tamizh Magan with Vijay sir as well. I have worked equally hard on this movie. The storyline is vastly different from my first film and we’ve added some additional flavour to the re-make!” he said. He also had some good advice for those struggling for survival in the Tamil film industry, “all that you need to succeed is a really good friend. I had several of those and they really supported me through my bad days!”
Keyaar, president of the Producer’s Council, seemed to be in high spirits throughout the event. Seemingly unfazed by recent controversies, he happily joked with his second-in-command, T Siva of Amma Creations. He was also very appreciative of the film’s trailer and songs. “Bharadwaj, as always, has done a fabulous job on the music. He seemed to have disappeared for a while, but from the songs we’ve all heard, I think we can safely agree that he’s back with a bang!”
Athithi’s soundtrack was then launched in due course and everybody was sent on their way. And while we were waiting for the last Audi to pull out, we suddenly realised that actress Ananya was not in attendance at the event. Our excuse? That perfume. Clearly, it went straight to our heads.
And no, we won’t entertain any other assumption.
Postscript:
Needless to say, these are Silverscreen exclusives.
Recommended
[accordion title=’Capping It Off’]This event had a record number of gentlemen in caps: we spotted at least twenty, out of which Thambi Ramaiah and director Bharathan were the only high profile ones. And Thambi Ramaiah’s cap, at best, was really cute.[/accordion]
[accordion title=’Black, White and a Lot Of Blue’]
Keyaar wore a white shirt. Generally, he wears a black one to these events.
While on the subject of white shirts, Vidharth, Nikesh Ram, Nanda all teamed starched white shirts with cool looking pants.
So many blue shirts! We really struggled to keep track this time. While Dharani did make it easy on us with a stonewashed top, the others were not so helpful.
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[accordion title=’Close Shaves ‘]
Singer/actor VV Prasanna sported a clean-shaven face which made him practically unrecognisable while newbie Nikesh Ram’s beard-free mug was a far cry from his look in the movie.
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