Ayan (film)

Ayan
Directed by	K.V. Anand
Written by	K. V. Anand
Produced by	M. Saravanan M. S. Guhan
Starring	Surya Sivakumar Tamanna Bhatia Prabhu Ganesan Akashdeep Saighal
Cinematography	M. S. Prabhu
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production company	AVM Studio
Distributed by	Sun Pictures (India) Ayngaran International (Worldwide)
Release date	April 3, 2009
Running time	158 minutes
Country	Template:FilmIndia
Language	Tamil
Budget	$3 million
Box office	$8 million

Ayan is a 2009 Tamil action thriller film written and directed by K. V. Anand. Ayan was released worldwide on April 3, 2009. The film, starring Surya Sivakumar, Tamanna Bhatia and Prabhu Ganesan in lead roles, is produced by M. Saravanan and M. S. Guhan, while distribution rights were sold to Sun Pictures in January 2009. The film score was composed by Harris Jayaraj, the soundtrack released on January 19, 2009. Edited by Anthony Gonsalvez, the film was filmed by M. S. Prabhu.

The film's story revolves around Deva, a youngster whose mother anticipates him to become a government official, works for a smuggling group run by Arumuga Dass who has been looking after him since childhood. Conflict occurs when Deva's prime rival, Kamalesh opposes and tries to eliminate Arumuga Dass from the smuggling business. Who wins in the conflict forms the climax of the story.

The film was launched in Chennai in March 2008 and released on April 3, 2009 worldwide to positive reviews. It was also released in Telugu as Veedokkade on May 1. Filming had also taken place in various locations out of India, including Namibia, Malaysia, Zanzibar and South Africa.

Cast

• Surya Sivakumar as Devaraj Velusamy
• Tamanna Bhatia as Yamuna
• Prabhu Ganesan as Arumuga Dass
• Akashdeep Saighal as Kamalesh
• Jegan as Chitti Babu
• Ponvannan as Parthiban
• Renuka as Kaveri Velusamy
• Koena Mitra in an item number

Production

Development

Three years after the release of his debut venture Kana Kandaen starring Srikanth and Gopika, cinematographer K. V. Anand expressed his desire to commence his second film as director. It was later announced that Anand would be directing his next film, produced under the AVM Production banner, titled Ayan. The film was inaugrated at AVM Studios on March 24, 2008 with the presence of most of the unit members. On the occasion, Anand announced the film's genre to be an action thriller interlaced with romance and comedy. He also suggested Ayan meant "outstanding", excellence" or can be the name for sun rays in five different languages. However, this was later doubted by a few critics, raising a point saying Ayan was not necessarily a Tamil language word. Despite the film's lyricst Vairamuthu's calls for the word to be a Tamil word, it was argued that Ayan was a nickname for the Hindu deity Lord Brahma. Since the word was then touted to be borrowed from the Sanskrit language, the film was prone to a title change, in light of Tamil Nadu's Entertainment Tax Exemption Act, which was passed in 2006. A similar problem was faced by the producers of Aegan, which was also under production at the time. The controversy was later dropped. Ayan was announced to be predominantly set in various locations of both South Asia and Africa.

Casting

K. V. Anand announced the film with both Surya Sivakumar and Tamanna Bhatia to play the lead roles in the film. Surya was initially expected to play the lead role in Anand's earlier film, but was not able to do so. Anand expressed his thoughts during the film's inaugration that "Surya was apt for the title role" since the film's title meant "sun rays" and the name "Surya" refers to the sun. Ayan would also make Surya's second film with AVM Productions, after their previous partnership in Perazhagan. Furthermore, Surya had worked with Anand since Surya's debut in the 1997 film Nerukku Ner for which Anand was the film's photographer. Surya's physique was key for his character, as he would be a acting as a powerful and active youngster. During the film's launch, he announced that he would give the film his best, understanding the nature of the producers, who previously presented the big-budget film Sivaji. Tamanna, after starring in the Tamil films Kalloori (for which she was nominated for a Filmfare Award) and Padikathavan, was cast in Ayan. Prabhu Ganesan was consecutively cast in Ayan in a pivotal role, as per his previous films, in which he played important supporting characters. It was later announced that Anand would introduce a new actor to Tamil cinema in the film, who will be playing a negative role, which was later known to be Akashdeep Saighal, who predominantly works in Bollywood films. Apart from the film's cast, the film's crew consisted of Harris Jayaraj as the film composer along with Vairamuthu, Pa. Vijay and Na. Muthukumar as the lyricists. M. S. Prabhu was chosen as the film's cinematographer, who is a friend of Anand and worked with him under the guidance of National Film Award-winning cinematographer P. C. Sriram.

Reception

• The domestic distribution rights film was sold to Sun Pictures for $4 million and grossed $8 million at the box office including $1 million in Malaysia.
• It has emerged as the biggest grosser in Surya's career...
• The international distribution and DVD rights were sold to Ayngaran International.
• The movie was dubbed in Telugu as Veedokkade and sold to Suresh Productions for $600,000.

Soundtrack

Untitled

No.	Song	Singers	Length (min:sec)	Lyrics	Notes
1	Pala Pala	Hariharan	5:25	Na. Muthukumar	Features Surya with extras; shot in Chennai and parts of Africa.
2	Vizhi Moodi	Karthik	5:32	Na. Muthukumar	Romantic interlude with Surya and Tamanna Bhatia.
3	Oyaayiye Yaayiye	Benny Dayal, Haricharan, Chinmayi	5:33	Pa. Vijay	Romantic interlude with Surya and Tamanna Bhatia filmed in sets.
4	Nenje Nenje	Harish Raghavendra, Mahathi	5:44	Vairamuthu	Romantic interlude with Surya and Tamanna Bhatia, shot in the Namib Desert.
5	Honey Honey	Devan, Sayanora Philip	5:19	Pa. Vijay	Item number featuring Koena Mitra also featuring Akashdeep Saighal and Surya.
6	Oh Super Nova/Hey Raja	Krish	2:37	Na. Muthukumar	Plays with the opening credits; not included in soundtrack album.

External links

• Ayan at IMDb