Director Bala is currently wielding the megaphone for Tharai Thappattai, which has Sasikumar and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar in the lead roles.

The shooting of this film is progressing at a brisk pace and we hear that the director has now roped in another heroine for an important role. He will be importing Kannada actress Kavya Shah to essay a pivotal role in the film. On bagging the opportunity, Kavya said that she is upbeat over her debut in Kollywood; more so because the film is being directed by Bala. Kavya will be seen as a dancer in the film, we hear.

The 39-year old bearded Sasikuar is said to be essaying almost seven roles in the film. Bala, known to take extreme care in ensuring that neither the script nor the appearances of his characters in the film are leaked to the press, is persisting with his habit.

The film has, however, hogged the limelight as it is the record-breaking 1000th film as music director for composer Ilaiyaraaja, who has treaded into a territory which doesn’t even appear in the wildest dreams of famed music directors all over the world, by becoming the first person in the world to score music for 1000 films. He is treating ‘Tharai Thappattai’ in a special way and given the best of best tunes to make his 1000th movie a remarkable one for him and for his millions of fans across the globle.

Ilaiyaraaja has reportedly composed more than 10 songs in the film and has already delivered the songs to Bala who was involved in ‘re-writing’ the script as he wasn’t happy with the way the script had turned out. Bala started the film’s shooting schedule in Kumbakonam a couple of months back and deviating from his characteristic style of making his films in a slow manner, Bala is making the film as fast as he can. The entire shooting for the movie will be over by the end of March and the post production works will start right after completing the shooting.

Sasikumar, who has till now been seen only in commercial films, plays the hero the film which reportedly speaks about the glory of the dance form Karagattam. Sasi, who is surely under instructions from Bala to hide his ‘get-ups’ in the film, is said to be leading a ‘secret’ life as he reaches home late in the night after the shoot and leaves for the shoot early in the morning so as to avoid getting spotted by others.

Sasikumar is playing the role of a professional ‘Nadhaswara Vidhwan’ and to look authentic, he is learning the basics of it everyday.

The makers have decided to stage a big audio launch to celebrate the landmark of Ilayaraja and it is worth mentioning that Prakashraj has literally cried after hearing the songs of ‘Tharai Thappattai’ while he was working with Ilayaraja for ‘Un Samayal Araiyil’.