All set to make waves internationally

Ashok Selvan and Priya Anand joined hands for the recently-released Kootathil Oruthan, which received positive reviews from audiences and critics alike. The duo is now teaming up for the second time!

This time, though, it is a 11-minute short film titled Maya, directed by Ani Sasi, a former associate of legendary director Priyadarshan.

The icing on the cake is that Maya has been selected for the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, from entries all over the world.

While the premiere is all set to happen in September, DC talks to Ani, Ashok and Priya about their film, which was shot in a single day.

Speaking about the film, Ashok says, “Ani is my good friend and he’s a creative person. We knew we’d collaborate in the future, but this time, he said he wanted to do a short film, which would  focus on the life of a writer. The premise was interesting and I wanted to be a part of it. Many of my friends asked me not to do a short film, when my career as a hero is picking pace. But, I thought that medium shouldn’t matter when the film’s story is extraordinary.”

The Thegidi actor is all praises for Ani — “We shot the film early this year and it was a fun experience. It felt organic and I was completely satisfied with our work.”

Priya Anand, on the other hand, agreed to come on board without even listening to the script! “I’ve worked with Ani and cinematographer Divakar Mani (former assistant to Santosh Sivan) in different projects. I can never say no and when talented people like Ani and Divakar approach me, I felt that I should support them. I’ve seen Ani as an assistant director and to see him take charge and work at a lightning speed was a pleasure to watch. It was filmed during the jallikattu protests and we were stuck there in our own world.”

Ani reveals that Maya is a culmination of five of his feature film scripts. “I got inspired to pen this story after reading a book. I thought I should make this film for my portfolio. I was confident of sending the movie to international film festivals. Here in India, we don’t really explore the festival circuit. We planned for three weeks and executed the shoot in a single day. We’ve used low–mix sound which means, the experience is better with 5.1 speakers,” he concludes.