Santhanam as North Chennai guy in A 1

Flush with the success of his Dhillukku Dhuddu 2 , Santhanam has moved on to his next, interestingly titled A1. Directed by Johnson, who won the ‘Naalaya Iyakkunar’ title in season 2, Santa will be seen for the first time essaying a character from North Chennai. Bollywood girl and theatre artiste Tara Alisha Berry has been roped in to be Santa’s romantic pair.

The first look where Santhanam is handcuffed (see pic) suggests he might be landing in jail. What is the film all about, we ask and debutant Johnson says, “The title A 1 comes with the tagline Accused No 1 and these numbers are apparently given to alleged suspects. Santhanam sir plays a local boy Saravanan often addressed as Saro from North Chennai who runs a shop there. He is one guy who would handle any challenging situation using his wits and brain. He gets caught in a predicament and how he comes out of it forms the rest. The first half will be a romantic comedy and in the latter portions it turns into a black comedy.

It is completely a new genre for Santhanam and he would travel along with the story.”

He adds, “Santhanam sir was there right from the story discussion stage and he knows the complete script. He knows each and every scene, which made my job easy.”

Tara Alisha has equal scope in terms of performance, the director reveals. Saikumar, Yatin Karyekar, Motta Rajhendran, Manohar, Swaminathan comprise the supporting cast. Produced by Raj Narayanan of Circle Box Entertainment, the movie has biggie Santhish Narayanan as the music composer.
“Since it is set in North Chennai, the milieu required an ace composer like Santhosh as there are quite a number of gana numbers as well in the film.”