“Life in slums has changed a lot. There are many graduates and IT workers living there. We have chronicled the travails of a youth living in one such Chennai slum in Yogi,” says Ameer.

The filmmaker, who is playing the lead role in ‘Yogi’, directed by Subramaniam Siva of ‘Thiruda Thirudi’ fame, says: “I am comfortable directing movies. My movies ‘Mounam Pesiyadhae’, ‘Ram’ and ‘Paruthiveeran’ were well-received. But Subramaniam Siva insisted that I do the lead in ‘Yogi’. I took it as a challenge. I had rigorous workouts, reduced my weight and followed a strict diet to prepare myself for the role.”

Interestingly, ‘Yogi’ is produced by Ameer’s home production Team Works. “We chose to do a movie around Chennai hutments, a hitherto unexplored area. The protagonist Yogeswaran alias Yogi leads a happy-go-lucky life and the events that he comes across in his life make up the story,” the filmmaker-actor says.

The biggest challenge that Ameer faced on donning the greasepaint was from the director in him who awoke every time he stood before the camera. “Thankfully Subramaniam Siva took charge. He made me feel at ease and extracted the best out of me,” says Ameer. About the delay in the movie’s release, he says, “it is no easy task to shoot in various slums of Chennai. We had to wait patiently for several weeks, even to shoot one scene and incurred huge costs. The whole team, however, worked hard. All credit to the technicians who managed to shoot the movie without much hassles. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is another highlight of the film.”

Watch Now - 'Yogi' Press Meet