Southern Spice: Venkat Prabhu’s ‘Biriyani’ is ready

Forget cooking this weekend — Tamil director Venkat Prabhu is ready to serve his Biriyani.

So what makes this Biriyani special? tabloid! caught up with the director.

For starters, this is Prabhu’s fifth film. You can look forward to his signature humour, as seen in his maiden film, Chennai 600028, an enjoyable story on gully cricket. The humour continued in his subsequent films Saroja, Goa and Mankatha.

Biriyani is Yuvan Shankar Raja’s one hundredth film as composer. Interestingly, music composers, G.V. Prakash, Thaman, Vijay Antony and Imman have sung the song, Thirumbi Va, for which lyrics were written by Prabhu’s father, Gangai Amaran. Not to forget lead actor Karthi’s rendition of Mississippi, in both the Tamil and Telegu version of Biriyani.

“It is a thriller,” said Prabhu, who graduated in accountancy from Middlesex University, UK, and worked for a couple of years before entering films as an actor in April Madhathil.

Hansika Motwani is paired opposite Karthi.

Making this Biriyani an explosive dish is British-Punjabi model Mandy. “Mandy’s character takes the story forward, because until she arrives onscreen, the film is just fun,” said Prabhu.

About Karthi Sivakumar, Prabhu said: “I have known him from my school days. He was my junior. This film brought us closer.”

“Venkat was my senior at school,” says Sivakumar. “and we were mere acquaintances greeting with a ‘hi’ when we bumped into each other. We bonded on the set.”

His younger brother Premji, a staple ingredient in Prabhu’s films, plays a significant role in Biriyani, while actor Ramki — missing from the industry for quite some time — makes a comeback.

“This will mark my second innings in the industry,” said Ramki, who refused to reveal anything about his role.

Is it a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian delicacy?

“This Biriyani will be loved by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians,” assured Prabhu.

Produced by K.E. Gnanavelraja’s Studio Green, Biriyani has cinematography by Sakthi Saravanan.