Actor Kamal Hassan explains why his new project Dasaavatharam is extra special. Excerpts:

Making of Dasavatharam
If I start about telling from where we actually began Dasavatharam it will take two years to tell you the story. Because every day, every word mattered.

We started with just 25 days for the first schedule of the film, which had no shooting, no acting. It was just for the make-up tests. 25 days in the US. 20 days, 12 hours a day, and then 5 days of taking photographs. When we came back with the photographs, people believed more in Dasavatharam, including the producer, the director and myself. Till date nobody outside of the unit has seen any of these photographs.

To cut it short, to cut to the chase as we call it.

If you want to get a glimpse of all the hard work we did, you will have to come and see it in the silver screen.

Synopsis
Synthetic bio-weapons, research and analysis wing, Kulothunga II's distaste for Vedanta and the Chaos theory!

Yes. Said in one sentence the above sounds pedantic and pompous. But embedded into a screenplay it makes for a racy read.

But this is all under the skin. What you see is the fairest of them all, entertainment. But, underneath you will find these little veins, tissues, muscles which each have a layer to it. And one of them is about the chaos theory and how we are all connected as a world. None of your acts or mine will go without an effect.

It's like as if one act, collides with another. It's almost like particle physics if you look at it. One object crashing onto another producing something else which could tell the story of how all things came to be.

Our insensibilities, sensibilities, our disregard for the society, our crimes, and our good work, all have a fall out reaction. In a pedestrian religious term people call it the karma. But it all comes around, because there is a physics to it. And all this comes about in the film and we are not talking of it in these bombastic terms. People who discern, people who look at it from that point of view will also be entertained. Big words apart I have to confess the film is all about entertaining as large a cross section of the audience as possible.

Special treat of the film
I think, basically I am a cinema fan. And I have given you what I would like to see as a sensible cinema fan. So, I think your intelligence will not be insulted, your time will not be wasted, and you will really enjoy this film. And why you should watch the film, because we worked so hard for you, that's one good reason why.

USP of the film
There is this peril of sounding like a postman or an SMS when we say that we have a message. We do have a message. The main message here is simple, you go to a theatre, you will enjoy the film. That's the main fun. But, apart from that I am, like you, a person who looks at my world, and worries about my environment, my people and my politics… all this comes about in the film too. The concern people have for others, their country is clearly depicted. But, it's not in a preachy pontificating kind of a way.

The characters are not mere pontiffs. There are villains, there are heroes and there are people who are confused in the film, like the rest of the population of the country. And you will identify yourself with the various characters.

Himesh Reshammiya
When I first heard of him, Himesh Reshammiya, it was just a name, and a popular name. And I was very skeptical like I usually am about anything new (like everybody else).

So I asked the regular series of questions like: Is he as good as this musician? I have worked with Ilayaraja in 100 films, and Mr Rahman in a few, and how is he going to be...

All of which was actually unnecessary.

The proof of a pudding is in eating it and the first spoonful convinced me that, I have got a good team here, and especially on the music front. He has done something brilliant with the first piece, which is set in the 12th century Chola Empire.

He has brought about the sound, as if he lived in Tamil Nadu. This was quite surprising. And from then on I didn't have to worry. I just had to tell him the sequence, and he came back with the music.

I don't know as compared to other films whether this film has the best acting, the best music, the best cinematography, or not. According to us this is the very best we have done.