Proceeds from nine-film anthology Navarasa to be used for helping those from the film industry

The Tamil film industry, led by directors Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan, has come together to help its members, whose lives have been thrown out of gear by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Yes, the film industry has come together to make a nine-film anthology called Navarasa, which audiences can watch on the OTT platform Netflix.

Presented by Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Pachapakesan, Navarasa will be based on the nine rasas (emotions) – anger, compassion, courage, disgust, fear, laughter, love, peace and wonder.

Nine directors — Arvind Swami, Bejoy Nambiar, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Karthik Subbaraj, Karthick Naren, KV Anand, Ponram, Rathindran Prasad and Halitha Shameem have directed a story each in this anthology.

The nine short-films feature a stellar line up of over 40 cast members and several hundred creative and film technicians.

The incredible creative community of Tamil cinema has united to send a strong message of solidarity and resilience and graciously offered their services pro-bono.

They will contribute the proceeds from the films towards the well-being of film workers in Tamil cinema impacted by the pandemic.

Speaking on this collaboration, directors Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan said, “We have always loved the idea of brainstorming to come up with unique ideas for raising money for deserving causes.

“This time, we were brainstorming for the cause of our own industry and to alleviate the agony of our people who had no work for months. The idea of producing short films and raising funds through them was born on one such brainstorming evening.We were thrilled that the idea resonated instantly with all the leading directors, actors and technicians we approached.

“Navarasa was a spark of an idea when we discussed it. The industry has come together to  passionately transform the nine emotions into nine films and make it count  for the audiences, the cause, the industry  and  its people. We are happy that Netflix has come forward to take this confluence of emotion, talent, people and the cause to the world.”