Aruvi explores love and humanity in the modern world, says director Arun Purushothaman

Debutante director Arun Purushothaman’s Aruvi had its world premiere at Shangai International Film Festival in 2016. “We thought people’s perspective in various parts of the world remains the same. Aruvi talks about humanity and love, and how they exist in the modern world. When our film was screened in China, people who saw the film interacted with us for more than one hour.  They don’t know English and I’m not good at Chinese but we tried to communicate through letters. The premiere in China actually gave us the confidence that people all over the world will relate to our film. In film festivals like MAMI and NFFK, we got a standing ovation”, says Arun to Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_4258205” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The poster for Aruvi.[/caption] Besides Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, who plays a reality TV host, all other actors including protagonist Aruvi (Adithi Balan, a lawyer by profession) are newcomers. Arun auditioned more than 600 people and selected nearly 20 actors for the film. Talking about the extensive process, the director says “We started the audition process in December 2013 by posting an advertisement on social media and it took nearly 8 months to finalise the actors. If we feel an actor would be apt for a particular character, they would be subjected to screen test and test shoot. I personally believe that a film like Aruvi demand newcomers because they don’t have any image and they will help us to establish believability. In fact, I picked some of the actors who actually belong to the same profession in real life. An actor who plays a watchman in the film actually works as a security guard”. Arun says that Aruvi is a normal girl in the modern society, and the film is a compilation of interesting things happening in her life. “We tried to replicate the perspective of today’s youngsters in Aruvi. Adithi plays a psychology student in the film, which actually talks about the series of adventures and misadventures happening in her life. After watching the teaser, people think that Aruvi talks about a sensitive social problem but my heroine doesn’t protest against anything, but the film will create a debate on how much love exists in society," says Arun. He adds that there are many socio-political comments in the film: “Aruvi is not against any particular industry but we didn’t restrict the screenplay to one crisis in the society. Aruvi is a film without any genre”. When asked if Aruvi is based on any real-life incidents, Arun says “No, it’s a fictional story but the film will reflect things which we would have heard and read in our life. We shot main sequences of the film only in India. There are scenes which demanded waterfalls and for that, we went to some never seen before locations in Tamil Nadu”. Aruvi’s songs composed by newcomers Bindhu Malini and Ved Shankar are getting exceptional reviews. “There are no standalone songs in the film, we only infused the tracks and music with the screenplay," says the director. The makers of Aruvi are releasing the film all over India on December 15, they also have plans to dub the film in Telugu based on the reception.