It has always been a cakewalk for actor Arulnithi to take the audience by surprise each time he appears on screen. Be it the Demonte Colony franchise or Aaradhu Sinam or Brindhavanam, he reads the audience’s pulse well and caters to their taste. “The team of Arulvaan completed a schedule of shoot and showed me the visuals that were enriching.
The message in the film is so strong that if a star does such a script the message will have a wider reach. If I did another 10 films and have had a few more hits to my name, the message would reach more far and wide.
However, the team insisted that I take up the subject. I was clear from the beginning that my presence shouldn’t make Arav’s role in the film look any less. Only after such assurances did I sign up for the film,” he says.
The story of Arulvaan is based on real-life incidents and revolves around a person called Kurinji. “Arav, Ramya Pandian and my character revolve around this character. The film stresses the need for education for marginalised communities living in the western ghats. There was a collector in Tiruchy named Malaiyappan. He fought for their educational rights even after his retirement and these incidents took place a few decades ago. In fact, for his farewell, he walked into the event in a mud-clad dress. When people asked him, he said that he had to allocate places for the people from the community and he did that all by himself. We have treated it differently,” Arulnithi opens up.
Arulvaan is also the second collaboration between Arulnithi and director Ganesh Vinayakam-- 13 years after Thagaraaru. “We both have come a long way, not as persons but in terms of our respective careers. Ganesh has been a little lenient towards me on sets but what took me by surprise is that the kind of scripts he has been dealing with lately. He has been writing scripts that are close to humanity and has been making films with a lot of authenticity,” he concludes.