Often we come across currency notes with all kinds of stuff scribbled on them – “X loves Y” or “Friends forever” or fascinating patterns involving names – though writing on notes is an offence. Those who come across these notes however do often wonder who wrote those lines, which in a small way help distinguish that one note from others in any bunch.
Well, here is a film on a Rs. 500 note that changes hands between five characters and their reactions to that valuable piece of paper. The film starts off with someone borrowing money from a pawn broker dropping the note which then begins circulating. “We wanted do something that both the poor and the affluent can relate to and a Rs. 500 note is one such thing. It can make a difference to people who are in lowest economical background and the affluent,” said Raghu Jeganathan, one of the people behind the movie.
Titled “500 & 5”, the public-funded venture that was made by a team of four at Accessible Horizon Films, the film is likely to be released soon. The film was shot with theatre actors from Chennai in various locations including Anna Nagar, Saidapet, Villivakkam and Avadi in Chennai and also Bangalore and Puducherry.
It received its Censor board certification recently. Deepak Sundarajan, Shankar.S, “Living smile” Vidya, Chinnu Kuruvilla and T.M. Karthik Srinivasan are the theatre actors, who play the main roles. None of the characters meet each other in the film. Deepak Sundarajan, who played the role of Sudalai, an assistant to a don, said it was fun working with the team. “Until the first day of the shoot, they did not tell me what the character was about… we learnt on the sets. It was a different experience altogether,” he said. He is presently working as an assistant director in the film “Thandavam”, which is being directed by Vijay.
Another team member, Kousalya. J, said that they made their own equipment including steady cam, dolly track and table top dolly. “We designed the equipment using information available online.
For instance a steady cam can be rented for Rs.10,000 a day. But we made one for under Rs.7,000. We now own it and can use it for other ventures. These were part of our cost-cutting measures. Initially, when we were trying to make a conventional feature film, we found that we needed a lot of financial backing; so we decided to make something with whatever resources we had,” she explained.
The team behind the film comprises Raghu Jeganathan, Kousalya J. (who is a trained architect, writer, designer, animator), Ramesh Mourthy (previously a software development), and Mohandass. R (an ex-mechanical engineer).
