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Kathir is a die-hard romantic. He is also a die-hard Net buff. And together, those two facets of his personality explain his latest directorial outing, Kaadhalar Dinam (Lover's Day), starring Pune-based debutant Kunal opposite Bollywood belle Sonali Bendre.

It is, on the surface, a thrice-told tale -- young boy meets young girl, young boy flips for young girl, young girl ditto for young boy... The catch being, this time the meeting takes place on the Internet.

Kathir is an inveterate surfer, the cybercafes of Madras and Bangalore being a favourite haunt. And the social chat rooms on the Web are a firm favourite. "When I logged in to those chats, I noticed that most of what goes on is romantic in nature, and that is what sparked off the idea for this film," he says. The Net, of course, forms only a quarter of the story -- the rest happens in real time.

Interestingly, the Net also provides Kathir his best bet for finding stars. Kunal, apparently, had come to Bangalore for an interview to join, of all things, the army when Kathir saw him outside the Bangalore cybercafe, and approached him with the offer of this film. Given the name of Kathir himself in the directorial credits, and that of A M Rathnam (producer of mega-budget hits like Indian), it was little wonder Kunal grabbed at the chance.

And Sonali? "Simple, this time round I wanted someone young and trendy; we are talking the age of the Internet here. I needed someone who suited that ambience, that kind of storyline, so I thought of Sonali. "Besides," says Kathir, "these days, the trend is for films, especially the big budget ones, being bi- or multi-lingual, so it helps to have a face that is widely known outside the boundaries of your own state."

Kathir has assembled an 'A' team, with P C Sriram handling cinematography, A R Rehman providing the music, and Thota Tharani handling art direction.

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