The director in Prabhudeva was quite eager to helm a horror comedy sometime in his career, but he didn’t mind acting in one, when an opportunity like Abhinetri came his way. In fact, the script of the trilingual came to him from another actor, who opted out of it for some reason. “I heard the film first as a producer and then, ended up acting in it.” He’s honest about the film having more comedy than horror. “The film is a family entertainer with horror being just the backdrop,” he states, preferring to call it a commercial package over the ‘different film’ tag.
Emphasis on dance
He admits that the dance content in the film was enhanced when he came on board. As an actor though, Prabhudeva was more than happy to just listen to what the director A.L. Vijay wanted. “I didn’t want to throw in ideas of what can or cannot be better with the final output. Though I knew the film’s concept , I wasn’t aware of the scene we were shooting for that particular day. I only wanted to be nice with my team, do my job and leave the sets.” In fact, he found that routine for close to 60 days quite relieving.
He doubts if any actor other than Tamannah would’ve done justice to the title role. “She okayed the script within 10 minutes and worked very hard to get her act right. Even the dance rehearsals, while people get exhausted after five hours, she had the mental and physical capacity to go beyond.”
Catering to audiences of three languages is no mean task, but he was backed by an experienced crew that knew its job. “They took care that the nativity doesn’t suffer. It’s a story about a couple from the South that heads to Mumbai for an acting opportunity. Work wise, things were tiring with shooting for the same scene in three languages, more so for the crew who hardly slept during the shoot. Vijay was so stressed that he wouldn’t want to commit to a trilingual project ever again.”
Prabhudeva will soon get back to direction next January and prefers to keep mum about his film with Abhishek Bachchan. “I only desire to do my best for this moment and hope my children turn out to be good human beings,” he says.
