Director A Sarkunam and actor Vimal shot to limelight with their debut flick Kalavani. The film opened to critical acclaim and packed houses, and the duo went on to work together in Vaagai Sooda Vaa, which won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film and the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.
A couple of years ago, Vimal and Sarkunam announced that they would be teaming up for a sequel to Kalavani and Oviya, who played the lead opposite Vimal in the prequel, was brought onboard this venture as well. According to latest reports, the shooting of this film has commenced and Oviya too joined the sets recently. As like Kalavani, the sequel will also be set in the backdrop of a village but the characters have been etched out differently.
Kalavani, released in 2010, was bankrolled by Nazir under the banner Sherali Films on a budget of Rs 1.5 crore and collected around Rs 5 crore at the box office. Written and directed by Sarkunam, the film had Vimal and Oviya playing the lead pair with Saranya Ponvannan, Ilavarasu and Ganja Karuppu in supporting roles.
SS Kumaran had composed the tunes for the flick with Om Prakash handling the camera and Raja Mohammad editing it. With the film being a big success, it was remade in Kannada under the title Kirataka. Directed by Pradeep Raj, the film had Yash reprising the role done by Vimal while Oviya was retained to play the lead opposite him.
Vimal and Sarkunam, teaming up for the third time, are aiming for a hat trick with Kalavani 2 as both their previous ventures were big hits.
Oviya Helen made her acting debut with the Malayalam film Kangaroo in 2007. Having acted in scores of Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada movies, Oviya shot to limelight in the popular Tamil reality show Bigg Boss, which was hosted by actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan. A popular housemate, the Oviya army came to her defence online and campaigned for her. However, unable to cope with the pressure, Oviya moved out of the Bigg Boss house and was then flooded with film offers.
(Content provided by Digital Native)