Aalavandhan was not like any other double action movie. Both characters [Kamal Haasan played a double role in this film] looked totally different. And many interactions took place between them.

It was a real challenge. We shot one character first, and after four months, we shot the next character to make them look really different.

Aalavandhan is a trendsetter in India. Not often do you get a film in which you can experiment.

It took four-and-a-half months for a team of 100-odd people to complete the work on the 384 shots in the movie. These ran for about 38 minutes in the film. It was a total team effort.

Kamal was very appreciative of our work.

There are two kinds of visual effects. One is invisible and the other, visible.

Most Hollywood films have invisible visual effects. You will not be able to point out which film has used special effects.

In India, we generally go by visible effects.

But, in Aalavandhan, we had a lot of invisible shots. In that way, it is a trendsetter.

Though the film didn't do well commercially, we were satisfied because we had done some good work.

But the icing on the cake was winning the National Award for Visual Effects for the film.

Collecting the National Award from President Abdul Kalam was the happiest moment in my life.

He told me, "I am proud of you. One day, you should make India proud."

He might have said this to everybody, but it was very special to me.

In the picture: Madhu (right) receives the National Award for Visual Effects from President A P J Abdul Kalam