'Coffee with Kadhal is a complete feel-good family entertainer'

The trailer and music album of Sundar C's upcoming feel-good entertainer, Coffee with Kadhal, was launched at a swanky event in Chennai on Monday. 

Coffee with Kadhal boasts of an ensemble cast, including the likes of Jiiva, Jai, Srikanth, Divyadharshini, Amritha, Samyuktha, Yogi Babu, Raiza Wilson, Aishwarya Dutta, and Malavika Sharma. The entire cast, barring Srikanth and Yogi Babu, were in attendance at the event. 

In a rather interactive event, hosted by Archana, Sundar C first took to the stage and regaled the audience by being candid about his experiences working on Coffee with Kadhal. In a tongue-in-cheek manner, Sundar said, "Usually, I don't have separate chief guests for my events because my films have such a huge star cast." The filmmaker shared that Coffee with Kadhal is a story about three brothers and their love lives. "There are six strong women in my film, and it was very important that we got the casting right," said Sundar, who then regaled the audience by sharing a snippet or two about each of his cast members. 

While Sundar ribbed Samyuktha by calling her one of the most challenging actors she has worked with owing to her habit of blinking too often, he said working with Raiza reminded him of his times filming with Karthik. Calling Amritha a photogenic actor, he called Aishwarya Dutta a bigger bundle of energy than his actor-wife Khushbu. "I had alternatives for all actors except Divyadharshini. She is the character that is the centre of the entire ensemble, and she is definitely the livewire of the cast. I can't talk a lot about Jai and Jiiva, who are like family to me. Jiiva is definitely a producer's actor, and he knows the importance of saving money by doing the simplest of things properly. Like the dialogue from my Anbe Sivam,  "idhenna kaadhala asingama sollitu irukka."

The cast interacted with each other and spoke about their experiences shooting at a stretch at Ooty. Jiiva said, "Even when I didn't have scenes, I stayed back on the sets to interact with them. Sundar C knows how to keep his actors happy. Although we say it was like a vacation of sorts, we did have our own competitive nature to bring the best out of each other." Samyuktha, who plays Srikanth's wife in the film, shared that the director's magnanimity was seen in the way he behaved the same with established actors and newcomers. "A lot of homemakers would relate to my role." Amritha is paired opposite Jai in the film, and she said, "I thought Sundar C sir would be a very strict filmmaker. However, he is a very sweet person. What shines brightest is his respect for the actors."

Yuvan Shankar Raja, who is collaborating with Sundar C for the first time since Winner (2003), performed a couple of songs from the film at the event. "It is always fun working with Sundar. Some songs take time, and he never gets angry about the delays. He was there at every step of us composing the background score. We had a very transparent relationship, and that is very important for delivering the best output for a film," said Yuvan. 

The film is backed by Khushbu for Avni Cinemax, and she took to the stage to express her dissent about not being featured in the now-famous Ram Bam Bam song. "I got the call only just a day before the shooting, and I had prior commitments. If I was told earlier, I'd have definitely made it," said Khushbu, who was profuse about the appreciation about the cast and crew, and especially Sundar. "He is a producer's director, and any producer can rest assured about the film's prospects if it is directed by him. Such is the image he has developed over the years, and our banner has made some massive successes thanks to him. We hope Coffee with Kadhal is one such complete family entertainer that the audience expects from us." 

Coffee with Kadhal is set to release on October 7.