Then, Kamal Haasan's Thenali happened. We had to do the effects for the title song.

K S Ravi Kumar, director of Avvai Shanmughi, was director of Thenali as well.

We came in for a lot of criticism -- people felt the effect we had created was too cartoonish.

We too felt it was not up to the mark.

Every time we were criticised, we took it seriously and positively and tried to rectify the problems. We learnt from each film.

In India, we don't have proper institutions to learn visual effects like you have abroad. We have to learn from mistakes and from experience.

Meanwhile, I went to Los Angeles for a brief while as the general manager of Total Infotainment Ltd.

Director Suresh Krssna, who was planning to make Aalavandhan with Kamal Haasan in Hindi and Tamil, called me there. He told me the film would be a trendsetter, since it had many technical complexities.

I was determined not to lose the opportunity this time.

I roped in George Merkert from Hollywood, who had done the visual effects for Ants, Total Recall, etc.

George was initially rather sceptical about doing an Indian film. India was not a hot commodity then.

But the moment he reached India, his opinion changed. That was when the IT boom had started in India.

It was a great experience working with Kamal Haasan. As he is a good technician, it was easy to interact with him.

In the picture: Kamal Haasan and Jyothika in Thenali