'Netru...' to open door for sci-fi genre in Tamil cinema: Director

Debutant director R. Ravi Kumar says forthcoming Tamil sci-fi comedy "Netru Indru Naalai", which is said to be the first time travel film in the language, will pave way to filmmakers to explore more stories in the genre.

"Tamil filmmakers have been content with romantic comedies and family dramas. I'm confident that my film will open more doors to sci-fi genre in the industry," Kumar told IANS.

Featuring Vishnu Vishal in the lead, the film is slated for release on Friday.

"Agreed, reading about science could be boring, but it's possible to make a science fiction film that's interesting and entertaining at the same time. Instead of explaining the science behind time travel, I've focussed on the journey of my lead characters in time," he said.

According to Kumar, there's lot of room for "creativity and imagination" in this genre.

"The predictability factor has become so evident in most Tamil films that audiences have started guessing scenes. In science fiction, there's always some degree of curiosity and excitement. Since most of us don't know what the future holds for us, the same is applicable for a sci-fi film as well," he said.

His fascination for computer graphics (CG) persuaded him to start his career with a film in this genre.

"This film is based on my short film. I've always been fascinated by CG, and the only genre where you can use it extensively is in science fiction. It's precisely why I wanted to do a full-length sci-fi film with good involvement of CG," he said.

He believes it's possible to deliver good output with CG, provided there's lot of planning.

"We spent about five months on the pre-production, mostly discussing how we could make the best use of computer graphics. I had prepared my cinematographer and CG team well in advance to work in tandem," he said.

"Quite a lot of time was spent on sketching the time machine. We wanted the kind of time machine audiences have not seen before, yet something that's not too complex. As soon the as the sketch was finalised, our CG team designed it in 3D, and finally our art director physically created it," he added.

The reason Kumar chose Vishnu as his hero is because his character is easily relatable.

"I could have made this film with a star, but his image would overshadow the time travel concept. Since my story revolves around a common man who stumbles upon such a device, I felt Vishnu would be perfect as audiences can easily accept him as one among them," he said.

Citing an example, Kumar said: "In 'Back to the Future', Michael J. Fox was a young boy. Audiences didn't even know him then, but they connected with his character strongly and even today he's remembered for it."

Produced by C.V. Kumar, the film also features Karunakaran and Mia George important roles.