A film on illegal bike racing in Chennai

Guess what’s North Chennai reverberating with these days? The sound of bikes revving up, ready for a race. For, that’s the movie being shot there these days, the heat notwithstanding. The movie’s titled 46, and has in the lead, Sachin Mani and Meenakshi. The subject of the movie, according to its producer,

Nidheesh Gopalan

(he’s a singer, remember

Mercury Poove

?) “Is about youngsters who indulge in illegal bike racing.” “It just happened overnight, the director of this film,

TR Bala

, is a friend of mine, and one day he asked if I’d like to produce a movie. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but then he narrated

46

to me, and I found the story interesting. In fact, the team backing him was even more interesting. So, finally, I committed,” he adds.

And one person, from “the team” Nidheesh is talking about, happens to be the Oscar-winning sound maker, Resul Pookutty. What’s such a big name doing with an enthusiastic team making a movie? “It’s a very challenging project. The movie is about a bunch of youngsters riding for thrills; for a moment of thrill, they give their lives. Such cheap thrills often end in tragedies. We’ve all heard of enough real stories around us where they regret that one moment. For me, there’s a lot of resonance of contemporary youth life in that story — and the team is a bunch of unknown guys, total cinema fanatics. I am not even charging them any fee for this work, because I love their passion, and I hope more people like them make movies,” says Resul. Adds Nidheesh, “Resul has been super. Thanks to him, there will be a lot of realistic ambient sound in the movie, and on-location recordings. The movie will be shot in and around North Chennai — the housing board areas, Pulianthope, Shenoy Nagar, etc. We’ve already started shooting, it’s been three days now, and we plan to wrap up the first schedule soon.”

“I plan to keep the sound real and raw. The story is about people who belong to the streets, their energy and enthusiasm. But such a thrill has no class, and I want to put audience right in the middle of the action and give them the rawness of the experience,” says Resul.


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