No-charge cast-crew win big

Prakash Raj, Shailendra Singh, Shreya Reddy and Priyadarshan

Kahaani yeh hai...
Shailendra says, "One night over dinner in Pune, during the shooting of Dhol, Priyan narrated the story of Kanchivaram briefly. He told me it was about a father-daughter relationship. In the south, women wear kanjeevaram saree on two occasions - marriage and death. In the film, Prakash's character who has spun thousands of kanjeevarams in his life can't afford to buy his daughter even one during both times. I immediately decided to produce the film."

Fed up
Singh goes on to say that Priyan told him that he was fed up of doing commercial films, "He said and if I produced this film, he would stop all his commercial projects and finish my film. None of the technicians in Kanchivaram - from Priyan to Prakash Raj to production designer Sabu Cyril and DoP Thiru - has charged a single rupee for the film."u00a0

The producer adds that apart from saving on the cast and crew fees, they saved every paise on the shoot, "Everyone would travel in Ambassador cars and stayed in guest houses in the remote interiors of Tamil Nadu.'"

Turned down
Singh says that Kanchivaram is Priyan's most precious film till date. "He wanted to direct this film nine years ago but all the producers turned him down saying it wasn't commercial enough. They all wanted more Hungamas, Hulchuls and Hera Pheris from him.

But few people know that Priyan is very versatile like Steven Spielberg and can do all kinds of films. He had given up on this film when he gave me a narration. I sat for three hours in Pune listening to his narration and it turned out to be one of the most memorable events in my life.u00a0 Kanchivaram is a celebration of content and creativity."

Standing ovation
Priyan has completed 25 years in cinema and finished 80 films but this is the only movie poster (of Kanchivaram) where he's said, 'This is best film of my life' and autographed it. The producer says, "At the Toronto film festival when we got a standing ovation from the entire audience we had tears in our eyes. Today after winning the award for best film Priyan told me that no money or fame could replace this moment in his life."

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