Sidelights
The making of a movie is a seperate story in itself.Read on to see what really went on behind the scenes.
- Everything was shot on actual location: there were no sets created. The house that the family lived in, is a true-blue Chettiar mansion in Karaikudi in the heart of Chettinad belt in Southern Tamilnadu. The ancestral house of Mr. M.A.M. Ramaswamy, it was opened for a movie shooting for the first time ever.
- The car used in the movie is a real vintage Hillman which was unearthed in Madurai.
- During Aishwarya's rendition of ``Yengai Yennada Kavithai'', it actually poured cats and dogs as Chennai was facing the brunt of the North East monsoon. In fact, it rained so heavily that they actually found it difficult to shoot.
- During the shoot of the scene of Abbas and Aishwarya in the Mercedes, she nearly missed getting run over by an autorickshaw while getting out of the car. She and the unit breathed a sigh of relief !
- Rajiv Menon is no mean cook himself. In Scotland on location, Rajiv cooked a hearty meal of dal and chicken for the whole unit.
- Abbas too displayed his culinary skills and surprised everybody with some tasty "aloo jeera" during the pub dinners that they had in Scotland.
- In Scotland, the entire unit was staying in a remote village where they were overwhelmed by the hospitality of the local residents. In fact, the unit and the residents became close knit enough to have many sessions together at the local pub.
- The castle, called Eilean Donan, where " Kandukondain�. " the little song was shot is located in Dornie village deep in the highlands of Scotland.
- For the song "Konjum Mainakale�" actual Kathakali dancers of the prestigious Kalamandalam school of Kathakali were used.
- The last shot of the song ``Konjum...'' has Ash running towards the horizon. She didn't quite hear the "shot over" call and continued to run much after !
- During the screening of the song shot in Egypt " Yenna Sola Pogirai�" Tabu fainted in the scorching heat , when it was actually Ajit who had to faint.
- Unnikrishnan Namboodiripad, the old man who plays the role of the girls' grandfather, is an 85-year-old Namboodiri and lives in a traditional manna in Payyanur near Kannur in Kerala. He had never stepped out of Kerala in his life or uttered a word of Tamil before. During the death scene, he actually requested that Vishnu Sahasranamam be recited as devout Hindus would do when someone is actually breathing their last !
Despite, lack of communication skills in English, he still had a whale of a time with the whole unit and would insist on getting himself photographed with both Ash and Tabu after each shot. Needless to say they were only willing to oblige. And, he would insist on calling Abbas, Ambas, as he is hard of hearing.
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