Mani Ratnam: Proceeds from Navarasa will go towards well-being of film workers

After Paava Kadhaigal, Netflix is set to bring another Tamil anthology titled Navarasa backed by Mani Ratnam and Jayendra Panchapakesan. The films are helmed by leading filmmakers namely Bejoy Nambiar, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Halitha Shameem, Priyadarshan, Karthick Naren, Karthik Subbaraj, Vasanth, Rathindran R. Prasad and Arvind Swami who is making his directorial debut. Navarasa is likely to stream from August this year.

Ahead of that, Mani Ratnam spoke at length about the project to The Hindu. The veteran filmmaker revealed that the proceeds of Navarasa will be going towards the well-being of film workers. The Roja helmer stated, "After the pandemic hit us, a lot of daily wage workers in the film industry were without jobs and money. As a team, we were thinking of how to help them, and that’s how the idea of Navarasa, a Tamil anthology done for the welfare of the industry, came about."

Interestingly, Mani Ratnam who launched Arvind Swami as an actor will be introducing him as a director in Navarasa. Talking about the same, the filmmaker shared, "Everybody has to start somewhere. The last time I spoke to him, he sounded not so keen on acting, but on direction... I think the bug has caught him!"

The cast of Navarasa includes who's who from South Indian cinema, namely Riythvika, Sree Raam, Ramesh Thilak, Vijay Sethupathi, Prakash Raj, Revathi, Ashok Selvan, Atharvaa, Anjali, Kishore, Delhi Ganesh, Rohini, Aditi Balan, Siddharth, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Yogi Babu, Remya Nambeesan, Nedumudi Venu, Suriya, Prayaga Martin, Gautham Menon, Bobby Simha, Sananth, Aravind Swami, Prasanna and Poorna.