Love Today is a very close-to-heart film: Pradeep Ranganathan

After making Comali in 2019, starring Jayam Ravi and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles, director Pradeep Ranganathan is back with his second project. Earlier tentatively titled AGS22, the film has been named Love Today.

Two first-look posters from the film were unveiled earlier today, which shows the director playing the lead role for the first time. Both the posters had Pradeep smoking cigarettes while looking intensely at what looks like a woman's phone, and reading her messages.

In an exclusive interview with Cinema Express, Pradeep says, "I began directing feature films after making short films. I used to direct and act in those films. A few producers had called me to act in the lead role after watching my short films so it was always on cards."

"When I was writing this story during the lockdown, I thought I would fit in this role, so I got in. To do both direction and acting was a little tiring, but I enjoyed working on it because this is what I wanted," he adds.  

Talking about the title and storyline of the film, he says, "The title will be apt for the film. The film delves into the positives and negatives of experiencing love in the present generation. Everybody has an ex-partner in their lives and the film will be based on that. It is a close-to-heart film which will be realistic and personal. The film will have a very happy climax."

Though the posters have been receiving mixed reactions on social media, Pradeep says that the film isn't as aggressive as the first looks. 

Pradeep shares that Love Today draws inspiration from certain incidents from his life. "There is ten percent that has those incidents and 90 per cent is fiction," he says.

Interestingly, the film has got the title from the 1997 Vijay movie of the same name. "I did not have any other option in mind. Until the day before the first looks were revealed, there were discussions about changing the title, but we stuck to this as everything else didn't go well with the storyline. Also, nobody has used a title from Vijay sir's movie. This is the first time," Pradeep elaborated.  

Apart from Pradeep Ranganathan, Love Today stars Ivana of Naachiyaar fame playing the female lead. Sathyaraj, Radikaa Sarathkumar, Yogi Babu, and singer and Bigg Boss Tamil fame Aajeedh Khalique are in prominent roles. "Yogi Babu will play a huge role like in Comali. Sathyaraj sir is the key to the story who will start the film and Radikaa will give closure to the film," he says.

Love Today involves genres like family, comedy and drama which will be in the Comali space. "It is shot fully in Chennai and Pondicherry. The shooting for the film is completed and is in the post production stage. We only have one song left to shoot. We are looking at an August release," he says.

While Yuvan Shankar Raja is scoring music for the film, apart from writing and directing the film, Pradeep has also written the lyrics for the songs. Dinesh is cranking the camera and MKT is working as the art director. Pradeep E Ragav, who edited Comali is also working on this project.