Awaiting the release of his debut feature film ‘Neelira’, director Someetharan sat down with Tamil Guardian to discuss his cinematic journey thus far. Being the first Eelam Tamil director to explicitly make a film set entirely in and during the conflict in Kollywood, a lot rests on the director’s shoulders including a lot of anticipation for how the film will perform from the industry.
Having started his career as a journalist and documentary filmmaker, Someetharan moved to Chennai in 2004 to study a Visual Communication degree at Loyola College before joining director Balu Mahendra as an assistant director. He spoke of Mahendra’s unrealised dream to make an out-and-out Eelam film, stating, “He [had] a dream… and he couldn't do [it]. So, he told me, "if you have [an] opportunity to make a film… at least your first film should be an Eelam film.”
Acclaimed director Karthik Subbaraj is an old friend of Someetharan’s, who he began collaborating with in 2008. Someetharan recollected attending the Mullivaikkal protests with Subbaraj, before sharing how he has creatively contributed to his films from 2014’s ‘Jigarthanda’ onwards. Subbaraj is now producing Someetharan's debut feature film.
It is a wonder that ‘Neelira’ is being released at all. Lamenting the struggle to create the film — likening the process to a balancing act on a knife’s edge — Someetharan explains Kollywood’s failure to see the Eelam Tamil diaspora as a viable market. For years, despite the abundance of resources, Someetharan has been unable to get a project off the ground: “…we have [a] lot of money, we have all [the] equipment, we have all [the] technologies. But why [can’t] we make a film? We made a film in the wartime, you know, in Jaffna, but I [can’t] even make a film now.”
Director Someetharan describes the synopsis of ‘Neelira’ as being set in the late 1980s on a wedding eve and night during wartime. “We are busy struggling if you have a wedding in Canada or London now… you have so [much] preparation, so many things… So, how [do] weddings happen in wartime?”
“This one night is [an] example [of] what we [were] struggling [with] in the war zone… this is the story [of] when I [grew] up… when I was a four or five year old kid. This is the first story I remember. I started my film career, feature film career, from my first story I remember.”
Someetharan felt true Eelam representation was essential but was not happening in Kollywood. He emphasised the importance of a diasporic population being able to see their people, language and culture displayed onscreen.
An issue that understandably seemed at the forefront of Someetharan’s mind was the mobilisation of the Tamil diasporic audience. “We have to create a market… Eelam Tamils all over the world. We are an invisible market, invisible audience… definitely, this industry will turn, ‘we have such a market for Eelam films’, so then they will produce [more] film[s]. So I request you… to support that, support the film – come to the theater and watch the film, and you have to own it. This is your film. It will open the way to all other films… we can make other films later… Other films and other politics, whichever we [wish] to talk [about].”
Five films that have inspired Someetharan.
1. Life is Beautiful (dir. Roberto Benigni) – [The] film [does] not directly talk about any politics, any war directly… [no] big massacre scenes or assault scenes, or… blood bath, nothing is in the film… You are enjoying [the] romantic scenes, love, marriage, family gathering and everything. You [can] enjoy that film [in a] very, very comical way. But when you watch the film after that, [the] impact [it creates]... I [can’t] forget that film.
2. The Pianist (dir. Roman Polanski) – Also [a] very interesting and beautiful film… [Polanski]'s equally treated everyone… even the Nazi force… Everyone [is] basically human; when you are in [the] army that is different.
3. Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino) – Some scenes [have] very much inspired me.
4. Kannathil Muthamittal (dir. Mani Ratnam) – I have some difference of opinion [with] that film but some areas… [there]'s some… wedding sequence in the film… It's actually portrayed our wedding… that wedding sequence is very well portrayed [as] our wedding.
5. Sandhya Raagam (dir. Balu Mahendra) – All Balu Mahendra film[s] [are] Sri Lankan Tamil film[s]... he created [them] in Tamil Nadu. But the scenes are that nostalgic feeling. In Sandhya Raagam, there is a scene [of a] saami oorvalam… one person around the saami… he sang that devaram – thiruchitrambalam – and all that… [you’ll] never [see that] in any other Tamil [film]... [it] is very familiar in our area, in Eelam… you can't see any other films in Tamil cinema.
'Neelira' is scheduled to be released in cinemas worldwide on 3rd April 2026.
Official trailer for film below.