Lights, Camera and Action for Meera Coconut Oil

After 4 months of work - which included a series of concept presentations, truckloads of script narration, analysis, deliberation and a final call to action, the Meera Coconut Oil film finally got shot on 23rd and 24th in Chennai.

The shoot crew had an interesting mix of people. It's directed by Karu Palaniappan, who is an upcoming, young and popular feature filmmaker in Tamil. Having directed Parthiban Kanavu, Sivapadhigaaram and Pirivom Sandhipom, Palaniappan brought in a feature-filmy take to the script. Incidentally, this will be his first independent ad film.

The Producer, Prabhakar who runs Brand Box Office had roped in Thiru, the ace cameraman for the project. He, according to me, can take this ad film to the next level. Apart from shooting loads of ads, he has helmed the camera for Hey Ram, Bhool Bhulaiya and Abhay. His next big venture is Robot with Rajnikant. But to get a glimpse of his talent, one needs to watch the much acclaimed Priyadarshan feature 'Kanchivaram' which has got rave reviews at the Toronto Film Festival.

Since the director and the DOP have a feature film background, the set too reeked of stories from Bollywood and Kollywood. Here are some interesting snippets:

1) Tamil cinema is facing a dearth of good screenplay writers. Today, mostly the directors write the screenplay / script themselves. So guys, if you have a story and the knack of writing screenplay, you know where to head.

2) Asin has started refusing big banner offers from the South after Ghajni.

3) PC Sriram (Thiru trained under him), once came at 10 in the morning for an ad film shoot and walked out at 10.15 because some miniscule detail in the set wasn't up to the mark. And he came back the next day to resume shooting, since that had wrecked his mood.

4) Nayanthara, the South bombshell carries a scissor with her during shoots. Because she always has an altercation with her designer on how short the length of her mini skirt should be. And finally she decides. With her scissors going chop, chop, chop.

Okie, I have digressed a bit. Just that I thought some filmy gossip can inject some mirth to your monday morning.

Nonetheless, as far as the Meera film goes, you guys should be able to catch it on Tamil channels by the second week of January.

Have a nice day.

Posted by Murali