Gargi certified U/A by Censor Board; Sai Pallavi impresses reviewers with her performance

The Censor Board of Film Certification has cleared Gautham Ramachandran's much-awaited Gargi, featuring Sai Pallavi in the lead, for release with a U/A certificate. The film will have a theatrical release on July 15 in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Gargi was shown to a significant number of members of the press on Thursday, and the reviews appear to be unanimously good. As Sai Pallavi's recent outing Virata Parvam utterly failed at the box office, all hopes are pinned on Gargi.

Written and directed by Gautham Ramachandran, it has Kaali Venkat, Saravanan of Paruthiveeran-fame, Malayalam actor Aishwarya Lekshmi, RS Shivaji, and others, in key roles.

Bankrolled by Blacky Genie and My Left Foot banner, Gargi is presented by Rana Daggubati in Telugu, Suriya and Jyotika in Tamil, and Rakshit Shetty in Kannada.

Sai Pallavi, in an interview, said, “the pressure to deliver” doesn't bother her. “The pressure only counts if I take it, otherwise it doesn't. Ultimately, I'm just an actor. Thinking about the movies I'd like to see at the cinema leads me to my next step. Therefore, I view a film from the perspective of an audience before I sign it. When I am entertained and engaged by a story, I am a part of it!”

It gives the Malar actor a thrill to see the audience cheer for a well-written character. “If I'm not completely in it, I feel a tad disconnected, and I don't experience the thrill when I get home. I look forward to scripts that make me feel this crazy about films,” she adds.

On directing Gargi, Gautham Ramachandran told OTTplay, that they adopted a fly-on-the-wall style of filming, which adds to the drama quotient. “It allows the audience to be a witness to the events that unfold on the screen. A certain approach was needed for the telling of that story.”

Having shot in and around Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, Gargi was filmed for 55-60 days.