Exclusive! H Vinoth on Ajith-starrer Thunivu: Unlike Valimai, this film's story required a shorter run time

The filmmaker talks about the challenges in recent times and duration of Thunivu

H Vinoth and Ajith

Ahead of the release of Ajith-starrer Thunivu, director H Vinoth is trending on social media. The movie is the actor-filmmaker duo's third collaboration. Touted as a heist drama with ample surprises for fans and other cinephiles, the project is expected to rake in huge money at the box office.

In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, Vinoth talks about the run time of Thunivu, his previous outing Valimai and how meeting the expectations of the audience has become a huge challenge in recent times.

Does he agree with the general opinion that moviegoers have become choosy and smart after the pandemic era because of which it is difficult to attract them to movie halls? He says, "All of us grow big in terms of our thoughts as time passes by. It is a natural process. This is not just limited to people's minds and capability to understand things. Every sector witnesses considerable growth in a span of a few years."

He adds that though the audience has evolved in recent years, filmmakers, too, have learnt a lot and have been exposed to several ideas and information during the pandemic period. "Unlike earlier times, today, we have various ways to do research effectively while working on a story. Fact checking has become relatively easy in today's times. So, I think audiences and filmmakers grow almost parallelly," he points out.

His last movie with Ajith, Valimai, had a run time of close to three hours. But Thunivu has a comparatively less run time of almost 150 minutes. Quiz him if this was a deliberate decision, pat comes his reply, "The run time of a film depends on the requirements of a story. If a story demands a three-hour duration, the creative freedom should be given to a filmmaker."

He points out the long duration of Avatar 2 and adds that a director should not trim the run time for the sake of it. "I felt that the story narrated in Thunivu required a run time of less than 150 minutes. It is as simple as that," he asserts.

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