Actor Karthi's 'Kaatru Veliyidai' is his first film as an actor with director Mani Ratnam under who he has worked as an Assistant director in 'Aaydha Ezhuthu'. Karthi and Aditi Rao play the lead roles in Romance film set in Kashmir. Today (March 20), the music album of the film composed by A.R.Rahman has been released amid in a star studded event.

Karthi plays a fighter pilot and in his speech he spoke in detail about the rarest of rare experiences of getting to portray a character and learning how the War pilots work to safeguard the nation.

"It took time for me understand the requirements of portraying a Fighter pilot character. It was very difficult for me to understand the way Mani Ratnam sir had conceived the character and wrote it based on his research.

So sir had sent me for a basic flying lesson. I sat next to a pilot on a flight and saw how a flight is operated to fly. We cannot get that feeling from anything else. The main training given to the pilots is to remain calm during panic situations. The most important quality of a pilot is to remain calm and composed in whatever bad situation he encounters while driving a flight. To know about fighter pilot, I spent a day with my friend who is a Wing Commando.

I genuinely felt that, In South India or in the way I was brought up, whether we have that much respect for the armed forces and whether we are aware about their level of dedication.

For a particular mission, flight will take of from different locations such asGwalior, Delhi, West Bengal and many other places. All those flights starting from different location will be expected to meet at a particular time, particular second at a particular quadrant. All the flights will meet at that place exactly at the decided point of time. From their they will go and perform that task for the mission. The machine is worth around Rs.200 crores and it will go on a speed of 800 miles. Just think about the level precision the pilots should possess? We know our IIT, IIM graduates are brilliant. Fighter pilots should be equally brilliant, calm and strong like IITians. Only then they can achieve the mission.

This is not a war film. It is a love story only but we wanted to bring the spirit of a fighter pilot and that was a big challenge for us. Mani sir has written the character with such a deep understanding and due to that I hope we have brought that well at least to an extent.

After working on this film, whenever I see them, I automatically stand up with a sense of respect. We cannot thank them enough for their amazing sacrifice. I think we can show of our token of gratitude in the form of respect by standing up whenever they come to meet us.

I feel very very honoured to be playing a fighter pilot in this film."