Blowing hot and cold

Anita has completed almost 80 percent of her debut film in Tamil titled Kulir 100 Degree.

It is a cool title and is about how five guys and a girl, all in their teens, spend their lives in a boarding school in a wooded hill station. It is a film for the youth. The average age of my actors is 17 and they are all new faces,” explains Anita Udeep, an engineer-turned-director. She is not new to cinema, having directed an English film titled Knock, Knock, I’m looking to Marry (2003), which was followed by a 3D animation film called Gulliver Travels (2006).

Anita has also sung the hit number Azhagia Asura in the Tamil film Whistle.The pretty writer and director also understands the pulse of today’s youth, as she constantly monitors their likes and dislikes in film viewing. Anita runs the 10-screen Mayajaal multiplex, considered to be one of the most successful multiplexes in India.

Sitting in her posh office and going through the box-office collections on her laptop, Anita says, The time is ripe in Kollywood to make something different within the commercial format. That is why I ventured into making Kulir. Our audience research has shown us that they are willing to try out something unusual. Take a look at the collection figures of a host of new films in Hindi and Tamil that people said would not click. At the end of the day, they have worked big time. It has given me the courage to make my kind of movie.”

Anita’s kind of movie is Kulir 100 Degrees, as the title indicates it’s both cold and hot which means that opposites attract, the basic framework of the film. “The film is a youth-oriented story using their lingo and trying to tell things their way. The guys in my film come from different strata of society. One guy is from a village in Theni, while another is from a posh area of Chennai. The audience can relate to each and every character, giving the film an universal appeal. The film goes through four seasons, and is made like a musical entertainer with comedy, emotions and suspense,” says the lady director.

She has picked a Delhi girl Ria as the heroine while the hero is a Tamilian Sanjiv from Coimbatore, who has done the offbeat Malayalam film Apoorva. There are six songs in the film, the music for which has been composed by Sasi, son of Murali of the famous Sabesh-Murali team. The film is being shot in Super-35 mm, by cameraman Vijay, an assistant of Aravind Krishna. Anita has shot the film in some exotic locations in Switzerland, Kulu, Manali, Yercaud and Ooty on a budget of Rs three crore. Anita adds, “The packaging looks glossy and will attract our target audience — the youth. There is no glamour or skin show in the film. This will be a racy entertainer which will keep the audience engrossed.”