Directed by: R. Ravikumar
Written by: R. Ravikumar
Produced by: R. D. Raja, Kotapadi J. Rajesh
Starring: Sivakarthikeyan, Rakul Preet Singh, Sharad Kelkar, Isha Koppikar
Cinematography: Nirav Shah
Edited by: Ruben
Music by: A. R. Rahman
Production companies: 24AM Studios, PhantomFX Studios
Distributed by: KJR Studios
Release date: 12 January 2024
Country: India
Language: Tamil
Ayalaan, which means ‘Neighbour,’ is a new Indian movie about science fiction. It’s written and directed by R. Ravikumar and made by KJR Studios. The main actors are Sivakarthikeyan, Rakul Preet Singh, Sharad Kelkar, and Isha Koppikar.
They started talking about the movie in October 2016. They began taking pictures for the movie in June 2018 and finished in January 2021. They took some more pictures in November 2022. Most of the filming was in Chennai. The music is by A. R. Rahman, the camera work is by Nirav Shah, and Ruben edited the movie. They used more than 4500 special effects in the movie, which is a lot for an Indian film.
Ayalaan will come out on January 12, 2024, during Pongal.
Cast
- Sivakarthikeyan
- Rakul Preet Singh
- Sharad Kelkar
- Isha Koppikar as Eliza
- Bhanupriya
- Yogi Babu
- Karunakaran
- Bala Saravanan
- Siddharth as the voice of the alien
Production
Development
On October 16, 2016, Sivakarthikeyan and his former manager, now a producer named R. D. Raja from 24AM Studios, said they were making a new movie. They picked R. Ravikumar to direct it. Sivakarthikeyan said, ‘It’s a big project and will take time.’
Ravikumar spent over a year making the script better for the science fiction film. Meanwhile, Sivakarthikeyan worked on movies like Velaikkaran and Seemaraja, both made by Raja.
After finishing Velaikkaran, Sivakarthikeyan said he’d work officially with Ravikumar. They planned to make the movie with a lot of money and bring in top experts. They said they’d start shooting after Seemaraja’s production was done.
The producer, Raja, decided to step back from making the film in July 2019. So, Sivakarthikeyan used his money to produce it under his company, Sivakarthikeyan Productions. Later, KJR Studios joined in to create and distribute the film, but 24AM Studios left.
They named the movie ‘Ayalaan’ on February 3, 2020.
Casting
Rakul Preet Singh joined the movie as the female lead in February 2018, working with Sivakarthikeyan for the first time. In April 2018, it was said that Yogi Babu and Karunakaran would also be part of the cast. Then, in August 2018, Sharad Kelkar joined in for an important role, his first in a Tamil movie.
Later, in March 2019, Isha Koppikar, a Bollywood actress who hadn’t been in Tamil movies for ten years since her 2001 film Narasimha, signed up. She talked about her character Eliza, saying she’s like the Tomb Raider character Lara Croft, a dangerous woman. The alien’s voice in the movie was known in December 2023 when they revealed it was Siddharth.
Filming
Filming started on June 27, 2018, with a big event in Chennai. Sivakarthikeyan and Singh were there, along with other actors like Bhanupriya, Kothandam, and Bala Saravanan. They began at Gokulam Studios and used a special camera, making it the first Indian movie to do so.
But then, they had to stop filming because of money problems and because Sivakarthikeyan was busy with other movies. They started again in February 2019, but Sivakarthikeyan’s work on other films like ‘Mr. Local,’ ‘Namma Veettu Pillai,’ and ‘Hero’ caused more delays. Money issues also made the producer, Raja, leave the project. Sivakarthikeyan decided to use his own money to finish the movie.
They restarted everything in September 2019 after fixing the money problems. Sivakarthikeyan even gave up his pay to finish the filming. They said most of it was already done and planned to finish the rest in about a month. Filming began again in January 2020, with a report saying they worked 15 hours for the climax scene.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic slowed things down. In July 2020, they said Sivakarthikeyan would join once he finished another movie called ‘Doctor.’ They finally finished shooting in November 2020, following strict COVID-19 rules with a small crew. Koppikar and Kelkar joined for the final part, and they shot for two months.
They had a special plan to shoot a big song in Chennai with 600 dancers, which would be the last scene of the movie. This took around 10 days. Finally, on January 24, 2021, they said they finished filming. They did some more shooting in November 2022.
Visual effects
Most movies, like the American ones or the Hindi film Koi… Mil Gaya, from 2003, uses actors wearing unique makeup to play aliens. But in Ayalaan, they made the alien completely using special computer effects. While filming, they used a boy as a stand-in for the alien. This helped the leading actor, Sivakarthikeyan, who had scenes with the alien, to know where to look. It took work to make sure everything matched up on the screen with all these effects.
They said it took over ten months to finish all the computer effects, and they spent a lot of money, more than ₹40 crore, on them. Ayalaan has more than 4500 scenes with these computer effects, the most ever for an Indian movie.
Music
A. R. Rahman made the music for the movie. This is the first time Rahman, Sivakarthikeyan, and R. Ravikumar have worked together. Rahman agreed to do the piece in late 2017 and started making the music in March 2018.
Even though the filming was delayed, Rahman finished three songs for the movie. He also sang the intro song because Sivakarthikeyan asked him to. On Sivakarthikeyan’s birthday on February 17, 2021, they released the first song ‘Vera Level Sago’ online through Sony Music South’s YouTube channel. Sony Music South got the rights to the movie’s music. The team announced they’ll release the rest of the music on December 26.
Release
By December 2021, Ayalaan had some trouble getting released. A company owed money, and a court said they couldn’t release the movie until they paid back about ₹5 crore. In April 2023, they said the film would come out on Diwali in November 2023, but then they delayed it again. They wanted more time to finish the special effects and computer-generated stuff. Finally, they set a new date for January 2024, during Pongal. Recently, on December 13, 2023, they confirmed the release for January 12, 2024.
