Post Production Updates

The latest news is that the movie post-production works are coming along well and the movie should be ready approximately in another month or so. One of the question most people ask me is when will the movie get released. I guess if everything goes well around January the movie should be ready for release. But remember there is always an "IF".

Recently Snehas was awarded with Nandhi award for her Telugu film "Gopalam". Hope this movie will be another milestone for her career.

Right from the beginning I was highlighting a lot of information about this film that will be trend setters. Notably the live audio is another key factor in this movie as all the scenes were shot with live audio and no dubbing except for couple of scenes. Prasanna and Sneha were asked to dub a couple of scene that needed some dubbing. When I spoke with the directory he told me that he was even thinking to dub one of the dialogue that I spoke in the film as it was not audible. I am a fast talker and I usually gulp some letters in words and that was caught by our directory during the post production. But they left it at that as it was natural and a very small dialogue in the movie. Another tit bit is - Since this movies involved artists and technology that span multiple countries the post production works are also being done both in Hollywood and in Kollywood.

Hollywood Hails Achchamundu!

I am little lagging on updating this blog as my job is demanding more time these days. But I wanted to update with a few news that I came across the movies.

- Our director had an opportunity to show the movie to some Hollywood big shots and here is the news from Behindwoods

- Sneha's interview about her experience in working with the film can be found here

In the meantime I realized that our director's blog was bombarded with spam comments from internet bots. It is sad to see some of the genuine comments going away from his blog because of this hassle. I believe now he is moderating his comments and back on track - Arun's Blog

Post Production Update

It has been a while I did give any update on the movie. My work is demanding more than before as our company go acquired by the software giant Oracle. Anywayz, our director Arun was in India for the post production works. Karthik Raja who is scoring the music for the film started to add more life to the movie through his Re-recording and music. See here for the videos taken during the post production work in Chennai here - http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/events/16302.html

After the completion of the post production work in Chennai, our director return back to USA. Now he is off to Hollywood to complete more work. I shall update more on that in my next entry.

Wrapppppppppppp!

This is the buzz word most of us are hearing lately. Even though it makes many of us happy that our work is done, this is when the next phase in film making starts - Post Production. The AA team completed their shoot for the most part especially the cast and crew's work is pretty much done. Everyone is now anxiously expecting the most crucial part of the film making - Editing.

Editing is where all the footages will come in a nice shape. N.P.Satish is the editor for this film. His experienced touch will shape this movie in the coming days. His profile includes movies like Devar Magan, Magalir Mattum, Mahanadhi, Chach 420 etc. It is to be noted that one of the producer for this film is also a close associate of Kamal Hasan in addition to Satish who worked with Kamal Hasan in many movies. From a recent announcement it is an interesting news that Kamal Hasan will be making his next movie using Red One camera that the AA team used for this film.

Director Arun when talking after the movie wrap said, '... now it feels like I had delivered the baby ...'. Thats right he delivered the baby and now its time to take care of the baby so that it can grow up to the next stage. The team is passing off their work to the next group so that re-recording, editing, visual effect etc. can be done. Most of these will be done here in USA.

Red, Red, Red and More Red

It is an old news that 'Achchamundu Achchamundu' is being shot using the Red One Camera. Also I mentioned earlier that this is the first Tamil and especially Indian movie to be shot in Red One Camera. But the interesting fact is that - not just one but 4 Red One Cameras are involved in filming (Can I even say this word?! I guess I can) this movie. At some point of time they used 3 Red One Cameras at the same time.



[Image Courtesy : http://www.arunhere.com]

Red One Camera is capable of recording at resolutions up to 4096 horizontal by 2304 vertical pixels, directly to flash or hard disk based digital storage. It features a single Super 35-sized CMOS sensor and a cinematography industry standard PL mount.



[Image Courtesy : http://www.red.com/]

Director of this film, Arun mentioned in his blog - 'I am sure this camera is going to be a boon for Indie film makers with lot of dreams and a decent budget.'

Speeding Up!

The past weekend was a hectic schedule for the movie crew and cast. After completing the scenes at a major location for this movie they are off to other locations to shoot scenes involving lot of other artists. The famous Bridgewater Temple in New Jersey was one of the location.

Couple of scenes involving many artists was shot over the weekend and during the starting of this week. It was really challenging for the Director, DP and the crew to manage lot of artists especially kids. Things are getting to speed up as we are approaching the wrap for the shooting of this movie. I guess around the July 4th weekend will be the wrap time for the shooting. Will bring you the last minute updates soon...

The Director's and The Leading Actor on the set - Exclusive

The world's second most popular sport Cricket has found a place in this movie too. With the latest buzz around Cricket, IPL, ICL, it would be interesting to watch Indians in America play Cricket in big screen. Especially the American technicians who grew up with baseball found it difficult to understand the game while shooting the Cricket scenes for the movie. USA also has a lot of Cricket leagues that play Cricket matches regularly.

I was able to catch our movie crew shooting a Cricket scene for Achchamundu Achchamundu at one of the parks here in New Jersey. With sunny weather in high 90s and humidity in high 80s the scenes were shot. During the break Arun, the director and Prasanna, the Leading Actor in this movie spend some time to talk about the movie and my blogging about this movie. And here it is for you ...

The City That Never Sleeps

There were some shooting at some of the prime locations in New York yesterday. Notable places are Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building...

It is hard not to shoot in New York when you are shooting in Jersey. The exotic skyline of the New York City and the busy people of New York city are always amazing to see. Looks like the director decided to give a scoop of this to his movie audience too. In addition lots of other small happenings will portray life of NRIs in USA.

Arun's Enthu

I was at the shooting spot this Tuesday and witnessed Arun's enthusiastic work. Yesterday was the last day of shooting at one of the prime location here in New Jersey. Arun was a little upset as he got attached to that location after a few days of shooting. But everything was wrapped up fine. In the next few days other small locations will be done.

I believe they are hopping to wrap things up by mid-July so that the post-production work will then get started in full swing.

Surprise Seasoned Actor

On the last day of the shooting at one of the prime location for the movie we all were surprised to see a new actor. There was a scene where a snake was involved in this thriller. It is interesting to wait and see what is the actual role of the snake in the movie.

The director, Arun had to audition couple of snake to select one that will appear in the movie. Like human actors Arun prefers a snake which is active. See Arun with the snake here in his blog.

But here is a picture of the seasoned actor who finally go selected and appeared in the scene.

Prasanna - Injury - Rod - Blood - Hospital

I was shocked when I heard that the there are news all over the internet and in newspapers saying that actor Prasanna was seriously injured during shoot as he was hit by the Hollywood actor John Shea who is doing a leading role in this movie. I know that there was a small timing miss during a stunt scene last week and John Shea hit Prasanna with his HAND. The shooting was delayed by 15 to 20 mins because of this and it resumed back to normal.

In fact some big websites like Sify, Indiaglitz had these news was a little upsetting. Since I know what happened in this case, I am starting to suspect most of the news that comes out in media these days. This is what happens when something was spread as a word of mouth - Communication Mutilation. Read the director's blog for a true scoop.

I called the a friend of mine who is assisting the production at the set and made sure that things are OK and infact some of the news in the media are not completely true. Also I went to the shooting spot yesterday and everything was just fine. Prasanna was giving his best effort energetically on the last day of shoot at one of the prime location for this movie. There are still some more scenes left but those will be shot in various other locations.

Dasavatharam on Silver Screen

Sneha and Prasanna enjoyed Kamal Hasan's Dasavatharam last week with North American fans at a movie theater in Central Jersey. Few fans recognized them on the way out and they were patient enough to pose for a some pictures and chat with fans. I believe this is the second movie that Sneha is watching in USA during this trip and its the first movie for Prasanna.

It is to be noted that one of the producer for this movie P. Srinivasan (from India) worked with Kamal Hasan in project liks "Hey Ram" and "Marudhanayakam".

Night Owls

I had a chance to go and see the night shoot that started last week. It was amazing to see how people go all night with the shooting. I always thought that they have the whole night for the shoot and it is better and productive than the day shoot. But after being at the shooting spot for one whole night of shoot I changed my impression.

There are many factors in a night shoot starting from wrapping things up before the day light kicks in play a major role. Too much water, tea and coffee get consumed during a night shoot. Also the leading stars who will have a close up shot shouldn't look sleepy or like a zombie without sleep in the camera.

The day I was in the spot, last Friday scenes involving all the 3 leading stars from the movie were shot. There were some fight scenes that were shot last week. I was told the night shooting is going to continue this week also as they move forward to shoot the climax scenes.

Information Technology & AA

If you are wondering what is the relationship between Information Technology and this movie, there is a lot actually. I am not going going to talk about the special effects or post production magics that you can do with computers here. I am here to talk about 2 of the people from the movie crew. The director was an IT consultant before he started his career in the entertainment industry. Chris Freilich, who is handling the camera and cinematography for this movie was also an IT consultant for a while.

Needless to say I am also making my bread and butter in the IT industry. So are most other people who are playing small roles like me in this movie. People like Arun and Chris are real inspiration for anyone who want to pursue their interests and goals with the big entertainment industry. If you google on both of these guys you would know how hard they worked through their way in the entertainment industry.

Weather - The Bad Boy

Excellent weather over the weekend but the week is started crazy! Crazy weather here in Jersey is playing a bad boy role in this movie for the past few days. Some of the impacts are less day light, early dusk, cloudy atmosphere. These thing really affect film making. So some of the outdoor scenes may get affected because of the bad body weather.

This is Week-2 and it started well with one of the Producer and Assistant Director joining the crew from India. Finally I saw a sign of relief in everyone here. The directory became really enthu and the producer here at US was also happy. So it will nice to see the progress of the film with everyone in place and only few words to be uttered "Action", "Cut" etc.

Who am I?

Most people asked me after reading my blog, who am I and how am I related to this movie. I should apologize that I haven't stated my affiliation with this movie. I am performing a small role in this movie. I was auditioned for couple of roles and the director selected me to do the role that I am currently doing. You and even I would have to wait and see how it is going to come in the big screen.

I have a lot of confidence in the director and his script so that it will be a very nice experience for me to be involved in this movie. I am working with some great people here and will get to know more about film making. I already saw all the pre-production work that went on for this film. Now that shooting is going on I am excited and thrilled to be in front of the camera. I cant wait to see the post production works. Wish me good luck guys!

Hear From The Horse's Mouth

I want to add that the director of this film, Arun is blogging his thoughts in his website - http://www.arunhere.com/aathemovie.



So you can think that to be more of the official blog where you can get information directly from the horse's mouth. But I shall keep you guys posted as well. Because once the shooting get started everyone will putting long hours for the movie and needless to say about the captain of the ship. So I am thinking of myself giving an extra hand by blogging about the movie.

The big day is tomorrow (May 28, 2008). The shooting is going to start after all the formalities like rehearsal, medical checkup for the main artists and technicians etc. I wish the crew "Best of Luck" with the shooting. The schedule ahead looks like less than a month of shooting.

If you haven't already read, I shall leave you now with an interesting info about the film - The movie is going to be shot in "Red One" camera [http://www.red.com/]. It is interesting to note that this movie is the first Indian movie to be shot in this camera. No reels and films anymore it will all be in digital format. Red One supports upto 4k resolution. More about Red One - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RED_Digital_Camera_Company

Hollywood Style Kollywood Movie

Right now the rehearsal for the movie is going on with utter professionalism. The shooting will start the day after the Memorial Day. It is interesting to note this complete movie will be shot in the NJ area. Also it is not common in Tamil movie industry to have rehearsals before the movie shoot. This movie inherits Hollywood style not only because it is going to be completely shot in USA but also because the director is a US resident and also many Hollywood artists and technicians are involved in this movie.

Sneha arrived

Sneha, who is one of the lead star for this film arrived USA last week and getting ready for the shoot. Sneha visited USA 5 yrs ago for a Tamil Convention in NJ along with few other Tamil cine stars. She is currently involved in the movie rehearsal.

The leading star is here

As of 12th May, 2008 Prasanna, the leading star in the film is in USA for the shoot. The leading female star Sneha is to arrive the following week.



For now, I can say that the shoot is going to begin after Sneha arrives.

Achchamundu Achchamundu - Launch

'Achchamundu Achchamundu' featuring Prasanna and Sneha was launched on 7th March 2008 at Green Park Hotel, Chennai. The official website for the movie is http://www.aathemovie.com/.

Arun Vaidyanathan takes the director’s chair for this film and Project East West–A produces the movie.

Many websites have the launch videos and here are some:
IndiaGlitz
Google Videos
Indiainteracts
AOL Video


The movie pre-production works are underway now and will begin shoot in the next few days. I will post some interesting information about this film right from pre-production till the post-release.

I shall leave you guys with one info for now - this movie is going to be completely shot in USA.

Keep watching this blog for more interesting inside info.