For 49-year-old Vyasan K P aka Vyasan Edavanakkad, direction was a 33-year-old struggle. A dream that took shape when he was 18 - stepping into tinsel town as a film representative with Rachana Pictures - will finally realise when his debut film Ayal Jeevichiripundu hits the screens this week.
But, Vyasan is at peace. He says he took the right path, however hard it has been. “I didn’t opt for an easy route. I had to survive. Work was important and taking a risk was something I couldn’t afford,” says the debut director.
His journey in the industry saw a major milestone when he, along with his friends, made a horror flick, Indriyam, in 2000.
The tactics he employed to market the movie was praised. That’s how his association with Dileep began. Soon, Vyasan was marketing all of Dileep’s movies, till his latest King Liar.
In between, he scripted the Nivin Pauly starrer The Metro (2011), which flopped at the box office. He needed over two years to recover from the blow. “The final product was not something I wrote. It was a collective failure,” he says.
Next was the Dileep-starrer Avatharam (2014). Things didn’t go, as planned. Vyasan says he left the movie mid-way over differences of opinion. But, the seed for his debut movie lay in his mind.
“I had a producer who was willing to make the movie. After several discussions, he thought I should direct it. It is a very realistic subject,” says Vyasan.
Ayal Jeevichirupund revolves around an educated writer and illiterate man who find that a rare bond binds them. “In fact, I was in a search for an actor who could play one of the two protagonists.
The moment I saw Manikandan in Kammattipadam, I knew he could be Murugan, one of the protagonists. Vijay Babu plays the other lead John Mathew Mathen,” says Vyasan.
