Bala’s Avan Ivan was launched amidst much bonhomie last evening at the Residency Towers. The occasion was graced by Vishal, Arya, Janani Iyer, Madhushalini, GM Kumar, RK, Yuvan Shankar Raja, and Suchitra. Bala’s mentor, esteemed filmmaker Balu Mahendra, did the honors and released the audio. In his speech, Balu Mahendra said that he is proud of his student and the kind of cinema he does.

Bala, during his speech, conveyed his gratitude to the man who had taught him the craft. The director said that he also owes a lot to Arya as the film happened mainly because of him. It was Arya who recommended Vishal and introduced him to Kalpathi S Aghoram. And so it came to be that Avan Ivan was produced by his AGS Entertainment. The producer allowed him to work in a hassle-free environment and Bala said that it had been the most pleasurable working environment for him so far as he was given a free hand to experiment with his creativity. He praised the leading men in his film for their performances and said that his favorite performance was that of GM Kumar who has delivered a knockout performance.

Arya and Vishal enlivened the evening with their delightful humor. Arya was unstinting in his praise of Vishal. He said that it was a physically demanding character and Vishal lived the part. His character is squint-eyed and so he had to wear special lens which caused him a lot of pain. After shooting, Vishal would suffer from headaches, agonizing pain, and insomnia but he persevered to the very end. Arya had the audience in splits when he revealed how Bala was a hard taskmaster and really drilled Vishal making the latter complain good-naturedly. Finally, he said that a film with Bala was the equivalent of 10 films with other directors.

In his speech, Vishal was also generous in commending Arya. He thanked him for helping him get this role and said that the movie would be a hit, thanks mainly to Arya’s livewire performance. Vishal also said that it has been a great learning experience to work with Bala and Arya.

The music by Yuvan Shankar Raja was well received and the talented music director was all praise for Bala. He said that the director had been very patient with him and gave him time and space to deliver his best. The background score is touted to be among the best of Yuvan’s work.

The heroines of the day, Madhushalini and Janani Iyer were dressed in black and looked pretty as a picture. They were very excited about the project and were thankful for the great opportunity received.

Avan Ivan is supposed to be different from Bala’s other films as it has a lot of comedy. Bala has already demonstrated that he has a flair for comedy particularly in Pithamagan. Therefore, there is a lot of buzz surrounding this project as the director is known for his powerful scripts and the knack for extracting the best from his actors. This film will also have doses of human emotions portrayed with sensitivity.