Tamil film ‘3BHK’ rides on emotions: Why Sri Ganesh and Siddharth hope for heartfelt stories
Siddharth, Sarath Kumar, Devayani and Meetha Raghunath in a still from ‘3BHK’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Small is the new big in Tamil cinema this year. A few biggies of 2025 might have disappointed fans, but the relatively-smaller ones keep giving.
Tourist Family, a film about a Sri Lankan family finding a new home in Tamil Nadu, won big at the box office earlier this year. It also stole many hearts for its emotional performances.
3BHK, slated for release this Friday, hopes to do the same. Starring Siddharth, Sarath Kumar, Devyani and Meetha Raghunath in lead roles — as a four-member family whose dream is to own a house — the film’s trailer has had overwhelmingly positive comments, most of which highlight its emotional and relatable content.
Director Sri Ganesh avers. “We wanted the audience to respond like this to the film,” says Sri Ganesh, “That such a response has occurred to the trailer itself gives us great joy.”
Directr Sri Ganesh
| Photo Credit:
Srinivasa Ramanujam. Shot On OnePlus #FramesofIndia
Heartful stories
The starting point of 3BHK was a short story written by Aravind Sachidanandam that Sri Ganesh chanced upon a few years ago. “It was beautiful and real. It centered around a family wishing to buy a home… the end was poignant. Plotwise, that story has nothing to do with my 3BHK, but the emotion in it stuck a chord with me. I wanted to flesh out an entire life journey from that emotion.”
Produced by Arun Viswa, 3BHK’s central core is how buying a dream home takes an entire lifetime for a few families, like the one showcased in the film. “For some, it defines their entire life; either they have to spend their entire lives planning for it, or shelling out EMI,” says Sri Ganesh, whose earlier films were Kurudhi Aatam and 8 Thotakkal.
Does it bother him that today’s audiences, used to watching films on OTT platforms from the comforts of their drawing rooms, are visiting theatres these days in search of a visual spectacle? “The big screen is not only for visual spectacles. I feel we go for an emotional experience; it can be an action, comedy or a feel-good film. While technical aspects are important, for a film like 3BHK, we would have achieved what we set out to do if you walk out of the theatre full of emotion,” says Sri Ganesh, who describes director Vikraman’s 1997 film Suryavamsam as ‘life-defining’, apart from picking Vaanathaipola and Anandham as his favourite Tamil feel-good movies.
3BHK has a strong technical team, with cinematographers Dinesh Krishnan B and Jithin Stanislaus, and art director Vinoth Rajkumar adding value. Also adding strength is young music composer Amrit Ramnath’s tunes. “When we started designing this album, we wanted to do something like 96. It was a soulful album, a result of thinking purely about the music and beyond what is trending on Reels,” he says.
Sri Ganesh’s early inspirations were comedian-actor Crazy Mohan – he has worked on the sets of a few plays of the playwright – and director Mysskin – he has watched Nandalala multiple times and assisted the filmmaker. He was also a part of Naalaya Iyakkunar, the popular TV programme that nurtured many current-day filmmakers. “I have evolved a lot as a writer in the last few years. When I did my debut film 8 Thotakkal in 2017, I wrote it as a fast-paced thriller because I was anxious to get the attention of audiences. Now, I am confident that I can hold audiences with just emotions and drama. My aim is to tell heartful stories.”
Siddharth, Sarath Kumar, Devayani and Meetha Raghunath in a still from ‘3BHK’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
‘Cinema is a writer’s medium’
Actor Siddharth’s biggest challenge in 3BHK was to be a specific person from start to finish without catering to commercial requirements. “My most exciting performances are playing a flesh-and-blood hero and the challenge there is to stay in character throughout. Like the lows and highs of Eswaran in my previous film Chittha, in 3BHK, Prabhu has to travel through different time periods. We hope people see Prabhu exactly the way director Sri Ganesh has written it,” says Siddharth, who has also sung a song in the film.
The actor describes this Friday as one of the most important weeks in Tamil cinema, with both director Ram’s Paranthu Po and 3BHK hitting screens. “It’s amazing that both of us have made happy, feel-good films. 3BHK helped me reminisce and remember a lot of my life and helped me understand about my co-actors’ lives. Cinema is a writer’s medium. I want Sri Ganesh to win big, so that we can judge the size of films based on quality of the script as opposed to the budget.”
Published – July 01, 2025 05:29 pm IST
