Nine Directors (Including Arvind Swami) Unite For Mani Ratnam’s ‘Navarasa’, Starring Suriya, Parvathy, Vijay Sethupathi…

Director Mani Ratnam, along with director Jayendra (180), will produce an ambitious nine-film anthology combining some of Tamil cinema's big directors and actors in a project titled Navarasa. On Wednesday morning, these directors and a few actors took to their respective social media accounts to announce their participation in the project.

These directors are KV Anand (Ayan), Gautham Vasudev Menon (Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya), Bejoy Nambiar (Shaitan, Wazir), Karthik Subbaraj (Petta, Jigarthanda), Halitha Shameem (Sillu Karupatthi), Ponram (Rajini Murugan), Karthick Naren (Dhruvangal Pathinaru), Rathindra Prasad and Arvind Swami.

The collection of short films, represents the nine emotions— Shringara, Hasya, Karuna, Raudra, Veera, Bhayanaka, Bibhatsya, Adbutha and Shantha — which stands for love, laughter, sorrow, anger, courage, fear, disgust, wonder and peace respectively.

The anthology also includes a set of 40 actors such as Revathy, Nithya Menen, Parvathy, Aishwarya Rajesh, Poorna and Rythvika, apart from Suriya, Arvind Swami, Vijay Sethupathi, Prakash Raj, Siddharth, Gautham Karthik, Ashok Selvan and more.

The list of music composers too are stellar with AR Rahman, D Imman, Ghibran, Govind Vasantha and Justin Prabhakaran scoring for the shorts among others.

Among the nine DOPs are Santosh Sivan, Manoj Paramahamsa, Balasubramaniem and Abhinandan Ramanujam.

In a press release, Netflix said that the proceeds from this anthology would go to people in the film industry affected by the pandemic. It said: "The incredible creative community of Tamil cinema has graciously offered their services pro-bono and they will contribute the proceeds from the films towards the well-being of film workers in Tamil cinema impacted by the pandemic."

The project is being produced under the banner of Justickets, in association with AP International and Wide Angle Creations as executive producers.

Talent and companies involved in Navarasa have offered their services pro bono.

This will become Netflix's second anthology in the Tamil industry after Paava Kadhaigal (Sin Stories) which united filmmakers such as Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sudha Kongara, Vetri Maaran and Vignesh Shivan.

The announcement has not confirmed a date of release.