Director Ananthakrishnan, who made heads turn in the Tamil film industry with his Metro in 2016 spoke to us about his upcoming third film, Oxygen, in an exclusive interview. 

Being produced under the Thenandal Studios Limited banner, Oxygen stars Ashok Selvan and two other big stars, whose names are being kept under wraps for now. The first look unveiled yesterday trended on Twitter and the film is one that Ashok is working hard to move away from the romantic boy-next-door roles.


Ananthakrishnan has revealed that portions featuring Ashok alone have been shot as of now and that filming could extend well into the middle of the year. The young director also shed light on the massive efforts the actor had undertaken for Oxygen saying a majority of the stunt sequences were shot by the actor without any dupe and that he was all game for it right from the start with full dedication.


One particular stunt scene, which was shot, featured Ashok Selvan jumping underwater in the middle of the sea from one boat, after which he had to emerge back to the top to wave back at the camera and climb onto another boat. This scene was shot using a helicam with the crew stationed at the shore. However, not all went according to plan as a tidal wave had covered Ashok Selvan when he emerged from the sea, after which the boat was on top of him. Had the scene gone wrong, either Ashok would have been pushed underwater by the tidal wave or get entangled in rotor blades of the boat. Ashok, who had never swam before in the sea had not revealed to the director or crew about this aspect only the day of filming and went forth confident to complete the scene. 


The action scenes in the film will all be live and not typically ones that we are used to seeing in films. There are also scenes, which have Ashok taking a physical beating in the form of tables being hurled at him, reveals the director. Oxygen, said to be an action crime thriller, will be on the lines of Metro in terms of social awareness and will definitely create a big impact when it releases, says Ananthakrishnan. The film will feature romance, but in a limited form in tune with the overall plot.


On the Metro remake in Hindi, Ananthakrishnan reveals filming has temporarily been put on hold as he wants to concentrate on wrapping up Oxygen.