Finally, it was to 21 year-old Silambarasan that a much older Mandira Bedi said 'yes'.

After her stint as anchor with Sony Max, many Tamil filmmakers wanted to cast Mandira Bedi in a Tamil film, but she refused them all. In fact, National Award-winning director Parthipan (for his film Houseful) even flew her down to Chennai. She backed out of the project though.

Silambarasan is the son of T Rajendran, the one-man show who used to produce, direct, act, edit, write — both the story and lyrics — and even compose the music for his films. Silambarasan grew up acting in his father's films and watching his father indulge in every department of filmmaking.

Though he came in with a lot of promise, recording a hit with Dum, none of his films thereafter have been hits. Producers still have faith in his star power though.

Manmadan, the story and screenplay of which has been written by Silambarasan, has Jyothika as his leading lady. Mandira Bedi acts as a psychiatrist in the film. The film is directed by A J Murugan and has music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Another interesting aspect of the film is that Yana Gupta along with 12 girls from Mumbai will appear in an item number, which is also the title track.

Text: Shobha Warrier