Debutant director Selvakannan, who quit his engineering job to pursue a career in cinema, says that he has done his best to give a lively picture of his native Nellai district with realism as the watchword in his upcoming film, Nedunalvaadai, which gets a release this Friday.

Interestingly, the film was crowd-funded by his college friends. “I had a script, which was very close to my heart. About thirty of us, all engineering diploma graduates based out of Nellai, knowing my passion, came together to make my dream a reality.” 

Selvakannan says that Nedunalvaadai will be about the affection of an old man towards his grandson, bequeathed through his daughter. “There was this issue of daughters being ineligible to inherit property, which the court ruled against. This issue influenced my script, and the audience in and around Tirunelveli will be able to connect with that.” 

The director also says that picking newcomers and training them in histronics was to ensure that the audience come to the theatres with an open mind, not being lured by the presence of a star. “That the film survived the two-year torrid time, when it had to be stalled for a variety of reasons, is our biggest victory. I am very positive about the audience response. The real challenge was to bring the film to the theatres,” he signs off.