‘I wish I had such nice wives’ – Kamal Haasan

The best in the business gathered at the famed Sathyam Cinemas complex this evening for the audio launch of I.Ahmed’s latest offering, ‘Endrendrum Punnagai’. The function paid host to the film’s frontline cast members including Jiiva, Trisha, Andrea and Vinay. The guest list was definitely one to boast of with the likes of Kamal Haasan, Bala, Suseenthiran, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Parthiban, T.Siva , Gnanavel Raja and lot more. Since the event was the audio launch, all eyes and ears were naturally on composer Harris Jayaraj who was present in the gathering.

The film’s producer Tamil Kumaran welcomed the gathering in the opening speech and said that it was not easy for a first time producer to do a project this big but was sure of the final product being rich. He thanked V.Ram for his timely assistance in this project. He also opened up on his close proximity to Bala, and that an invitation to him was only a formality. He also heaped praises on Kamal Haasan and thanked him for gracing the event.

Most of the speakers who followed kept it short and sweet, congratulating the team and wishing them success. One of the film’s leads, Vinay, revealed that it was Santhanam who called him up and briefed him about the project. Vinay went on to say that his decision to do the film was almost immediate. He said his big dream in movies was to act with Nasser, and now it had been fulfilled.

The films two heroines Trisha and Andrea looked their best and the multifaceted Andrea cheekily quipped that talking was not her thing, singing was. But she went on to say that she had a lot of fun with the team and that enjoyment had been translated on to the screen. Trisha backed up her co star by saying that going to sets for this film wasn’t work, it was fun. She thanked the director for the tailor-made role he had given her in this film. She also acknowledged the presence of Kamal Haasan, Bala and Parthiban and thanked them for making it to the event.

The director of the film, I.Ahmed, was truly bowled over with the presence of Kamal Haasan and Bala for his film’s function. He said that the difference between this film being a good one and a big one was Harris Jayaraj. He opened up about the project saying that he scripted the story keeping Jiiva in mind, but was unsure if the actor would be open to the idea of multi-starrers but Jiiva was equally keen on taking up this role. He reserved enough remarks to shower on his cast, calling Trisha a one take artist, Andrea as a perfect professional and Vinay as being an all-round great guy. He said his five assistants were like five wives who stood by him as pillars of strength throughout the project.

Bala spoke very little and said that only Kamal Haasan could make this event purposeful.  Picking up from where Ahmed left off, Kamal joked by saying that he could never get the kind of nice ‘wives’ Ahmed got and that he should be trying something different. Kamal, in all seriousness, said that he envied the rapport and the spirit of the team which had been very persistent of his coming to the event which had then made Kamal understand that it was with the same drive that they had made the film. He recalled how back in the day people were sceptical about how he could pull off the role of a dwarf for Apoorva Sagodhargal but the ambitious team of Endrendrum Punnagai was the sign of a refreshing change.

The event came to a close with the disc being unveiled by Bala and handed over to Kamal Haasan.