Sivakarthikeyan reveals he gave up salary for Ayalaan - 'I wanted this vision to reach people...'

Actor Sivakarthikeyan's long-delayed film Ayalaan is finally set to hit the screens during the Pongal festival in 2024. The film took about eight years to complete — right from its conception in 2016 to its 2024 release. Even though the film suffered multiple setbacks, the main cast and crew never lost their faith in the potential and novelty of Ayalaan. So much so that Sivakarthikeyan gave up his salary to help the producer to complete the film. 

"The question was whether I needed to get paid or make this movie happen," he told Behindwoods. And obviously, Sivakarthikeyan chose the latter. He seems to be fully convinced that Ayalaan will help the Tamil film industry reach the next level and will also resonate with audiences across the country. 

"The vision was to make a movie of this scale and size on a budget in our industry. When we started this project there was no such thing as 'pan-India'," he recalled. 

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However, the Indian film industry underwent a seismic shift following the release of Baahubali 2, giving the first signs of the untapped potential of India's domestic box office market. And since then "pan-India" has become a buzzword in every regional film industry. 

"We wanted to make a film like this in the Tamil film industry and establish that we can also do a variety of content. But, unfortunately, the producer faced many issues. And it became clear that the only way to make this film happen was to give up my salary. The only thing on my mind was to take this vision to people through theatres," he added. 

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Ayalaan is a sci-fi drama that revolves around the experience of an alien in the Chennai city. The film is written and directed by R. Ravikumar and it also stars Rakul Preet Singh, Sharad Kelkar and Isha Koppikar. 

Ayalaan is due in cinemas on January 12, 2024. 

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