My film isn't a remake of Fight Club: Feroz

The trailer of Feroz's directorial debut, Pandigai, suggested that the film is about underground illegal fighting. But he denies it's based on Fight Club. "People automatically assume that and they try to show off that they've seen that film," he laughs. "No one can remake a film like Fight Club and Pandigai has nothing to do with it." He says that the film starring Krishna and Anandhi, is about a person who has grown up believing that he can get anything he wants with a display of brute force and violence. "Eventually, he gets how wrong he is and tries to turn over a new leaf. But then, he gets pulled into it by the greed of some other people. How he overcomes it is what the story is about," says Feroz, who previously worked as an assistant to director Arivazhagan who has made Vallinam and Eeram.  

The trailer of the film also shows a lot of street slang being used, which indicates that a lot of work has gone into research. "All illegal trades use code names. In this film, Pandigai is the word used for street-fighting while Bommai refers to the fighter." The film has an ensemble cast that includes Paruthiveeran-fame Saravanan, Nithin Sathya, Karunas, Madhusudhan Rao and Aruldoss. Feroz is convinced that the film will be a milestone in Saravanan's career. "Other actors like Nithin Sathya, who plays a 50-year-old Marwari character, and Aruldoss, who plays a loan shark with multiple personality disorder, have great roles too. There are quite a few villains in the film."

The director heaps praise on his actress-wife Vijayalakshmi (Chennai 600028 fame) who has turned producer with this film. "Every director should get a producer like Vijayalakshmi. She has helped me with the script as well. Being an actress, she knows the importance of each scene, and as a producer, she has made sure that the money spent on each scene is worth it. Some of my fellow directors compromise on their scenes sometimes as they are worried that the producer may be annoyed about overspending, but not Vijayalakshmi," says the director, who for one particular scene, rented an entire theatre, and removed all the seats for a fight sequence. 

The film has been a while coming. Feroz blames the censor procedures. "Many scenes were chopped off when we first sent the film to them. It takes quite a while for them to certify it. The film now has a U/A certification with minimal cuts," he says. Being an action film, Krishna supposedly suffered quite a bit. "He took quite a few hits, and by the end of each day, he would either be limping or bleeding," he says. "I hope all his work gets acknowledged when the film releases on July 7."