Aruvi director on Rajinikanth's call, controversial dialogue on Vijay and plagiarism allegations

Director Arun Prabhu Purushothaman, who has made a head-turning debut with Aruvi, was on cloud nine yesterday following an unexpected call from Superstar Rajinikanth who showered lavish praise on the film, which has been the talk of the tinsel town for the past few days. Aruvi has already been hailed as one of the significant socio-political films ever made in Tamil cinema in the last decade or so. [caption id=“attachment_4258207” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  The poster of Aruvi.[/caption] Talking about Rajinikanth’s phone call, an elated Arun exclusively told FirstPost: “It was a truly surreal moment. He told me ‘Hats Off’ five times. I thanked him. He said, “I’m the one who should thank you for giving a fantastic film like Aruvi to audiences. Your film made me cry a lot and laugh out loud. It also left me thinking deeply. You have a great future ahead. You’re one of the important directors in Tamil cinema.” I worked as an assistant to director KS Ravikumar in Rana and Kochadaiyaan and travelled nearly two years with the team. He didn’t know that I was the director of Aruvi. After I told him, he recognised me. He appreciated the entire team for their performances and said everyone has lived in their roles.” Meanwhile, Aruvi has been one of the talking-points on social media for the past few days for the controversial dialogue in the movie on actor Vijay’s filmography. “A good film featuring Vijay? Which movie is it?” goes the dialogue, which has earned the wrath of his ardent fans. Asked about the intention behind the dialogue, Arun explained, “It was not something I wrote as a deliberate attempt. It’s told from the perspective of one of the characters in the story. It came as a flow in the screenplay during that particular sequence. My film talks about deep resentment. It’s against hatred and stresses how one should not hold a grudge against others. So, it was definitely not my intention to personally attack anyone. Also, it was not written just to create some controversy. Aruvi is about love, humanity and compassion.” Arun Prabhu also addressed the plagiarism allegations that Aruvi has been copied from the Egyptian film Asmaa which shares a comparable core plot. “I watched Asmaa day before yesterday after seeing a lot of tweets. It’s quite essential for film enthusiasts to discuss and compare two films which share a similar plot. But, they should watch both films fully and express their point of views. I’m glad that Aruvi provided an opportunity for everyone to watch Asmaa.Once they watch Aruvi and Asmaa, they will understand that both films are blatantly different and the complete contrast between the two. Merely reading the plot on Wikipedia will be of no use. Asmaa talks about a married woman and the difficulties she experiences in her everyday life in the family. In Aruvi, only the first 15 minutes revolve around the titular character’s life and upbringing. Later, the story entirely takes a shift to talk about the society and people’s problems more.” [caption id=“attachment_4267783” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Adhiti Balan with director Arun Prabhu[/caption] Director Shankar, who always makes it a point to appreciate quality films, took to his micro-blogging page and posted: “Aruvi - A very good movie. Unmasks everything and everyone. Excellent work by Director Arun Prabhu, Adithi Balan and everyone performed very well.” Despite unanimous positive reviews and excellent word-of-mouth, the movie will be taken out of major screens in Tamil Nadu to pave the way to two big releases in Sivakarthikeyan’s Velaikkaran and Santhanam’s Sakka Podu Podu Raja, which are slated to hit screens on December 22nd. Producer SR Prabhu has requested audiences to catch Aruvi in theatres over the next two days before it’s taken out of screens. “To all those asking why #Aruvi not released near their places. Small films won’t get screens in advance. Now Christmas weekend won’t have space too. Even in TN, big films will hijack many of its locations. So hurry!!! Only 2 days more,” he tweeted. [sic]