Speak of the devil 

Filmmaker Aathityaa, who made his debut with the 2018 comedy film, Savarakathi, is back with a contrasting genre: A crime thriller, for his sophomore film Devil. Starring Vidharth, Poorna and Thrigun in lead roles, the film hits the screens on Friday.

"After Savarakathi, I wanted to venture into the thriller genre. Just when I was looking for a crime, I came across a book written by Devibharathi. I believe that a good crime thriller requires a strong crime at the centre of it. I took only the crux of the story and wrote an entire screenplay for Devil," shares Aathityaa, who adds that the film also has elements of horror and drama, despite being a murder mystery at the core.

"I believe there's a devil within every human being, who makes us lean towards immoral thoughts or actions," he explains adding that the film deals with how people identify their inner devil and purify their minds.

Poorna has previously played the lead in Aathityaa's Savarakathi and Kannamoochi. "It's easy to work with Poorna as we have worked together before. For Devil, I needed someone like Revathy from Mouna Ragam, and Poorna perfectly fit the bill," he shares. With Vidharth he wanted to break the stereotypical image associated with the actor, "Vidharth usually comes across as someone who would stay true to his spouse in a healthy marriage. I wanted to break that image of his and show him a grey character."

Aathityaa's brother, director Mysskin is making his debut as a music composer with Devil. "Mysskin has great knowledge of music. He already knows Western Classical, and is now learning Hindustani and Carnatic music from Ramamurthy, the teacher of Yesudas, purely out of interest," says the director explaining why he approached his brother for the film's score.

Devil is backed by R Radhakrishnan and S Hari, and P Gnaanashekar of Maruthi Films and H Pictures, respectively. Karthik Muthukumar has cranked the camera for Devil while Elayaraja S has handled the editing.