He credits his stint as an assistant director with Pa Ranjith as pivotal for his vision in filmmaking. “I have worked with Ranjith sir in Kaala and the pre-production of his adaptation of the tribal hero Birsa Munda. The one thing I grasped from him is his uncompromised attitude in storytelling. Secondly, he confidently assigns challenging tasks to his assistants. Kaala had several scenes with thousands of junior artists. Without a second thought, he assigned handling 3000 junior artists to his assistant. Delegation of duties and working with collaborative effort is also a lesson I learnt from him before I turned director,” he adds.

Produced by Mumbai-based Swastik Visions, Angikaaram, which is in its last leg of production, also stars Sindhoori Vishwanath, Viji Venkatesh, Antony, Rangaraj Pandey, Mohan Ram and Mansoor Ali Khan. Composer Ghibran Vaibodha, stunt director Peter Hein, editor San Lokesh and art director Ramu Thangaraj are part of the film’s technical crew.