Five at the helm

FEMALE producers Nirmala Venugopal and Nanthini Ganasen decided to combine their energy, expertise and resources to produce a Malaysian Tamil-language film together.
The result is a unique anthology film that features five stories, helmed by five young directors – Madana Vilosyen, Ganesh Kumar, Sivanesan Ramdass, Jaydevan Jayakumar, and Rupini Letchumanan.
Nirmala of Feather Entertainment and Nanthini of Jhangri Production are relatively new in the Malaysian film industry.
This is only the second movie that Nanthini is producing, while for Nirmala, this is her first foray into the world of films.
But that has not stopped them from attempting to do something different.
"We wanted to give budding talents a chance to shine, as well as inject new blood in our film industry," explains Nanthini.
Nirmala adds: "There are so many talented directors out there."
The choice of five directors also tied in nicely with the title of their film, Aivar.
Nanthini says: "'Aivar' means 'five'. There are five directors, five stories, and five main characters in this film."
Each director is given one character and one story, which are all linked together.
Currently, the 150-minute-long film is in post production.
Madana, who is the youngest among the five directors, says: "This is the most beautiful thing to happen in my life. I have always wanted to be a film director, and this dream is finally coming true."
The 22-year-old reveals that his part of the story concerns a prostitute who wants to leave the business and walk the right path.
Of course, it's never that easy.
Ganesh, 29, is the oldest among the five.
But he admits that while the others are younger than him, they are very knowledgeable. "I have learned a lot from them."
He is reluctant to reveal too much of the story he did so as not to spoil the fun for the audience.
All he will tell is that he handled the love element in this suspense thriller.
With five editors at the helm, how did they handle differences of opinions on the set?
Sivanesan, 23, explains: "It was not easy for one movie to have five directors.
"Each of us has a different mindset … and a different version of how the movie should turn out.
"But what we did was to have a healthy debate and discussion before shooting began.
"We understood each other's strengths and weaknesses. We all came to an agreement on how the movie should shape out, visually. In the end, we had less conflict."
The portion Sivanesan directed deals with a woman who is trapped in her house, where someone is out to kill her.
Things get more complicated when there is blackout and she is alone in darkness with the killer.
The only woman among the five directors, 24-year-old Rupini, explains that her story deals with a college girl who is trying to overcome a traumatic experience.
Asked if the four male directors had 'bullied' her on the set, she laughs and says: "It was not difficult for me to work with four guys.
"If anything, they gave me first priority to [share] my opinion."
Meanwhile, Jaydevan's story is about a man searching for his identity and his purpose in life.
Initially, the 26-year-old admits he had some reservations working on a movie with four other directors.
He explains: "We were not friends before shooting began. The first time we met was in the production house."
But he says, in the end, his fears proved unfounded. Everything worked out perfectly.
Aivar is expected to hit cinemas at the end of November.