Janaki Viswanathan shot to fame with her National Award winning film Kutty in 2001. She followed it up with Kanavu Meipada Vendum. Her upcoming Tamil film has gathered a lot of attention mainly because of the title -- Om Obama.
She tells Shobha Warrier why she chose the title and what the film is all about.
Om Obama is an unusual title for a Tamil film. How did the idea come to you?
Initially the story was set in a village and the Obama angle to the film came later on. The story is about the happenings in a village. The Obama angle was added to give it a larger backdrop. One of the things that happen in the story is about a factory being set up in the village and how it suffers because of the recession in the US.
I read on the Net about how the Indian garment export industry in Tirupur suffered because of the economic recession in the US. That article quoted a few people from Tirupur. At that time, the Presidential elections in the US were taking place and one man said, 'if Obama becomes the President, there would be a turn around.' Most of the shops have 'Om laabham' (profit) written inside. The article even quoted a person saying that instead of Om Laabham, we should have Om Obama now! I found the quote quite interesting.
From where did you get the inspiration for the original idea? Did you visit any of the villages in the state?
No, the original idea was completely fictional. The recession angle was genuine as everybody was talking about the economic recession at that time.
Image: A poster of Om Obama, and Janaki Viswanathan
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