MUMBAI: Fans have been eagerly waiting for their heartthrob actor R. Madhavan to return on the screen in his much loved ‘lover boy’ character in Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming Tamil romantic musical drama, Maara alongside versatile actress Shraddha Srinath.  Directed by debutant director Dhilip Kumar, the film’s trailer took the audiences on a heartfelt journey of fairy tale and won million hearts within hours of launch. Spilling the beans on some exciting and lesser-known moments during the shoot, Dhilip revealed how the romantic drama has been extensively shot in the beautiful locations of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, between the rains making it a perfect visual treat for the viewers.

In a candid conversation, Maara’s director Dhilip Kumar recalled how shooting the film’s sequences in the coastal areas of Kerala was the most challenging yet the most fulfilling part of the shoot. He said, “Every other day we used to get cyclone alerts during shoot. It was very difficult to shoot in such a bad weather. However, eventually we managed get our scenes right once we understood the weather pattern. I remember how for the first few times we all freaked out, but with each passing day it got easier and fun. Then it was like a guessing game since after every couple of days there was an alert. After a while shooting in the rains was never an issue, however you don’t see that much rain on screen. We would wait for the rains to stop and get a half an hour window, and sometimes wrap the scene within that half hour.

Unveiling about some lesser-known facts about the shoot, the director continued, “The first half of the film was entirely shot in a coastal town. We extensively shot on roads, and sometimes when a character is riding a bike or walking on the street, they would not know where exactly the camera was placed. Consequently, we managed to do a lot of candid shots. Scenes happened over large spaces and we shot with zoom lenses at least 200m away from the actor and they didn’t have any clue from where they are getting captured. That was liberating in a way as there was no scope of getting conscious about the performances since the characters acted without looking at the camera. I don’t think we could have done it in Chennai or anywhere in Tamil Nadu.”

Maara marks the feature film debut of Dhilip Kumar who had directed a short film titled Kalki in 2015. Produced by Prateek Chakravorty and Shruti Nallappa of Pramod Films, Maara also features Alexander Babu, Sshivada, Mouli, Padmavati Rao and Abhirami in other prominent roles. Mark your calendars now to stream the global premiere of Maara exclusively on Amazon Prime Video starting January 08, 2021.