Jayam Ravi's Comali declared a box office success, further securing his position as a commercially viable actor

Jayam Ravi’s Comali, which released on Independence Day, is bonafide hit . The light-hearted comedy entertainer directed by debutant Pradeep Ranganathan is attracting the family audiences to the theatres. It has grossed Rs 25 Cr in six days mainly from Tamil Nadu and trade has classified it as a super hit_. Comali_ may end up as Jayam Ravi’s biggest hit and is likely to surpass the collections of his previous film, Thani Oruvan, which made Rs 26 crores distributor’s share in Tamil Nadu. The producers of the film, Ishari Ganesh of Vels International, threw a success party in which they attributed the film’s success to “Jayam Ravi’s performance in multiple get-ups, entertaining commercial format and team work”.  Ravi is all praise for the 25-year-old director Pradeep Ranganathan for “his clarity and confidence in working out an engaging and humorous script with correct commercial packaging.” [caption id=“attachment_7168521” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Jayam Ravi in a still from Comali[/caption] A beaming Ravi later said: “When Pradeep narrated the script of Comali to me_,_ it excited me as it had lots of fun elements, a neat message and family appeal. I wanted a break from the angry young man and no-nonsense cop roles and Pradeep’s script fit the bill. One of the most challenging factors was I had to shed 18 kgs to play a high school student in the first 20 minutes of the film and that portion is getting the maximum claps in the theatres. Despite stiff competition, the film took a fantastic opening.” Meenakshi Sundaram, the Manager of Mayajaal and also a distributor, said: “Comali is a very family friendly entertainer. The concept of a man waking up from a coma after 16 years, to find that things have changed and life has moved on is the film’s USP. Plus Jayam Ravi’s screen presence and terrific comedy combination with Yogi Babu, is bringing in the audiences.” Now that Comali is a big hit, it has strengthened Jayam Ravi’s position as one of Tamil cinema’s commercially viable heroes. His last two films – Tik Tik Tik and Adangamaru turned out to be hits too. And with Comali he has proved that he has a terrific opening, the sign of a superstar in the making. Shiyam Jack, a close associate who takes care of Jayam Ravi’s  promotions says : “I have not seen any actor who is so dedicated to his film and his choice of scripts has worked to his advantage. He is extremely hard working. He goes through his scripts with a fine comb and is clear that it should not only entertain but also have a relevant social message. And once the film is ready for release he earmarks 10 days to aggressively promote the film across platforms.” Meanwhile after taking part in the success party of Comali, Ravi took off to Azerbaijan for the shoot of his new espionage thriller to be directed by Ahamed. There are rumours that the film is a remake of Akshay Kumar’s Baby. Taapsee (who was part of Baby) will reportedly play the female lead in this action entertainer. Ravi’s next release will be with director Lakshman, in which he will play a farmer and there will be a strong social message in it. With Nidhi Aggarwal cast opposite Ravi, the film is being produced by his mother-in-law Sujatha Vijayakumar under her HMM banner. He has also signed a three film deal with leading producers Screen Scene which will start sometime next year. But the most important development is that Jayam Ravi has been signed by none other than Mani Ratnam to play an important role in his period multi-starrer Ponniyin Selvan. The actor is keeping mum about it but sources close to him confirmed that after he finishes JR 25 and director Ahamed’s film, he will join Mani Ratnam’s epic by December. Jayam Ravi has no dates to spare till early 2021.