I received death threats from the petrol mafia while collecting details for 'Diesel': Director Shanmugam Muthusamy

Chennai, Oct 15 (IANS) Director Shanmugam Muthusamy, whose upcoming film 'Diesel' showcases details of a petrol-diesel scam and the mafia behind it, says that he even received death threats from some people when he got down to probe and find out details of how this network operated.

Participating in a pre-release event of the film, which features actors Harish Kalyan and Athulya Ravi in the lead, director Shanmugam Muthusamy, who took 10 long years to collect details and come up with a story before making it into a film, said, "The spark for the story of diesel came from an incident that happened when I was travelling on the highway. I had stopped to take a bite at a motel on the highway when observed that young boys in their teens were stealing bucketfuls of petrol and diesel from a tanker lorry parked there."

The director went on to say,"I thought it was interesting and began to investigate further. The more I found out the more I got shocked. As I started probing deeper, there were some who threatened me, there were some others who chased me. When I began to collect details to make a film, some even issued death threats."

The director then went on to explain why he thought he should tell this story to the public. "I realised if petrol is increased by Rs 2 per litre, our monthly budgets shoot up by anywhere between Rs 5000 to 10000. The public is directly affected by this scam and the mafia behind the scam. So, I decided this was a story that had to be told to the public."

Stating that his film had the solution to several questions, he said some of the questions the film would answer included "To whom does the ill gotten gains go? How I, as a common man, am affected by this problem?"

The film, apart from Harish Kalyan, Athulyaa Ravi, Vinay Rai and Sachin Kedhekar, will also feature Sai Kumar, Ananya, Karunaas, Bose Venkat, Ramesh Tilak, Kaali Venkat, Vivek Prasanna, Zakir Husain, Thangadurai, Maaran, KPY Dheena and Apoorva Singh among others.

Written and directed by Shanmugam Muthusamy, the film, which is to hit screens on October 17, has been produced by Third Eye Entertainment and has music by Dhibu Ninan Thomas. Cinematography for the film is by M.S.Prabhu and Richard M.Nathan and editing is by San Lokesh.

--IANS

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