The artists involved in the project offered their services pro-bono to extend their support to members from the Tamil film fraternity, who were affected during the pandemic. Gautham Vasudev Menon, Priyadarshan, Bejoy Nambiar, Karthik Subbaraj, Sarjun, Vasanth, Karthick Naren, Arvind Swami (in his directorial debut), and Rathindran Prasad, were the directors who were a part of the project, while the ensemble cast included popular actors such as Suriya, Vijay Sethupathi, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Prakash Raj, Aditi Balan, Siddarth, Yogi Babu, Bobby Simha and Revathi among others. The nine-part anthology film marks the coming together of nine Kollywood directors and a star cast. So, right when Mani and I started discussing the project, we wanted to make lots of films so that we could extend support to many people.” Talking about Mani Ratnam’s enthusiasm for the project and to help people, Jayendra added, “Mani also suggested that we find the 10th rasa since it would be an addition to the number of films, which in turn will result in more people getting support.” The initiative was started to help film workers. And the dishy Siddharth and the lovely Parvathy dance a dangerous ‘pa de deux’ in a strange story (Rathindran R Prasad’s Inmai’) about human greed and djinns who turn up to make things right.Speaking about the making of Navarasa, Jayendra said, “We planned the project towards the end of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the shooting happened during the peak of the second wave. A woman bringing up a son and daughter and her hardscrabble life, which lead in unexpected directions, leaves an impact in Arvind Swamy’s ‘Roudhram’. If you cause a life to be lost, whose fault is it? The person who wielded the weapon, or the person who led you down that path? Priyadarshan’s short (‘Summer of 92’) has the wonderful Nedumudi Venu playing a father-cum-teacher who has a hard-to-marry-off-daughter a man (Yogi Babu) who comes back to his village with memories of both, and how it all ties together in a smelly, scatological funny heap. The marvellous Revathy toplines a story (Bejoy Nambiar’s ‘Karuna’) about hurt and revenge, and her co-stars, Prakash Raj, Vijay Sethupathi and Sai Tamhankar give her full support.

Navarasa nayagan karthik video song