Inspiration for ‘Achcham Madam Naanam Payirppu’ came from teenager’s blog: Director

Chennai, March 26  Raja Ramamurthy, who has just made his debut as a director with the Tamil film ‘Achcham Madam Naanam Payirppu’ (The Myth of The Good Girl), featuring actress Akshara Haasan in the lead, says he got the inspiration for his film’s story from the blog of a teenager.

Talking to IANS, the director, whose film released on Prime Video on Friday, says, “I read a teenager’s blog on how she hadn’t met societal expectations and how she was grounded everytime she was trying to break the rules. It was also about how when she eventually broke the rules, nothing about her changed. She remained the same person. That kind of fascinated me. I thought I should make something about this.”

The film revolves around Pavithra, a 19-year old, who comes from a conservative background. She is in that awkward stage between being a curious teenager and a smart woman and struggles to strike a balance between societal expectations and personal desires.

Interestingly, the film, Raja Ramamurthy says, was shot in a matter of just two weeks and what’s more, he managed to make the film while also running the operations of his digital production firm, Trend Loud.

Wasn’t he stressed handling two big projects simultaneously? Says Ramamurthy with a smile, “I work with a lot of efficient people. The film was shot in just a couple of weeks as it was a very intimate film. We didn’t take a lot of time to get the shoot or post-production done. To be precise, it was done in a matter of 15 to 16 days.”

The one-hour 20 minute film, an Amazon Original, has been recognised at various international film festivals such as HBO’s South Asian International Film Festival, Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival at Boston, Chicago South Asian Film Festival, Atlanta Indian Film Festival, Tasveer South Asian Film Festival at Seattle and the Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival in Canada.

Ask Ramamurthy, who has a Masters in Screenwriting programme from an institute in the US, as to why he picked Akshara Haasan to play the lead in this film and he says, “The protagonist in this film doesn’t have a lot of dialogues. It was about facial expressions. How one uses her eyes. I think Akshara is terrific with her body language and facial expressions. She was perfect and immediately came on board for this project.”

After having a successful run at the international film festival circuit, the Tamil coming-of-age dramedy, ‘Achcham Madam Naanam Payirppu’ (The Myth of The Good Girl), has now released on Prime Video.

Apart from Akshara Haasan, the film also stars Usha Uthup, Anjana Jayaprakash, Malgudi Subha, Janaki Sabesh, and Suresh Chandra Menon in pivotal roles.