The story goes like this: Shankar was in the final stages of floating his own production company, S Pictures. As he was busy shooting his Boys, Balaji Shaktivel, one of his assistants decided not to disturb him. Instead, he approached other producers with his Kadhal script. Many were willing to produce the film, with the condition that it star Dhanush, the hottest hero of that time. Unfortunately for Shaktivel, the actor did not have dates to spare.
Once the shooting of Boys got over, Shankar asked his assistant to start working on a new script for S Pictures and keep the Kadhal script aside for Dhanush's dates. But Balaji was insistent that he wanted Kadhal to be his first film. He asked Shankar to give him just Rs 2 crore and two months. Shankar obliged.
Shaktivel who had seen Bharath as one of the five heroes in Boys was terribly impressed with the 21 year old. Though Bharath was a city bred, fair skinned, educated young man, more famous for his dancing, Shaktivel saw in him the uneducated, dark small town motor mechanic Murugan of Kadhal.
Kadhal (Love), the love story of a poor motor mechanic (Murugan) and a reasonably well off high school girl (Aishwarya) created history by becoming one of the biggest box office successes in recent times.
The latest achievement for this little film is its selection to the non-competitive, 'World Cinema' section of the prestigious Times-London Film Festival which starts on October 19. The London film festival's official book says, 'Director Balaji Shaktivel has deftly adapted the formulae of Tamil commercial cinema to combine with graphic realism, unadulterated joy and seismic action sequences, spun together with some wildcard editing and sparkling photography.'
Kadhal will be screened at the festival on October 21 and 24. Balaji Shaktivel has been invited to talk on the film, and will answer questions from the audience.
