If Atlee, a Shankar protégé, marked a niche for himself with Raja Rani , now is the time for Karthik G Krish. The first-time director has just completed Kappal , which is likely to hit the screens by the end of June.
The film, he says, will portray possessiveness. “We all know that there’s a lot of possessiveness in matters of the heart,” he starts off. “But what if there’s possessiveness in friendship? That forms the basis of this script.”
Starring Vaibhav and Sonam Bajwa, most of Kappal was shot in the city. “I wouldn’t describe it as a romantic comedy, but both the elements are there in plenty,” he says.
Karthik has worked with director Shankar on two big-budget projects, Sivaji and Endhiran . So, what is it about the new breed of filmmakers emerging from Shankar’s school of thought? “We learn how just writing a story is not enough and that one has to face a hundred issues on the spot to get our sequence right,” he explains. “The challenge of filmmaking is to translate our idea on to the monitor. With a short film, for example, you have certain liberties — you can choose to shoot elsewhere if a certain location isn’t working, or shoot later if an artiste isn’t available. But that’s not the case when you’re doing a feature film on a decent budget. There’s a lot of coordination involved and things have to fall in place,” he says. So, what did Shankar say about this project? “He loved the title and some of the initial designs.”
About the leads, the filmmaker says, “I wanted an expressive character for the male lead. Vaibhav has a certain twinkle in his eyes that fits the subject perfectly. And, though this is Sonam’s first Tamil film, she has done a fine job.”
Recalling his first tryst with filmdom, which was around the time Anniyan released, Karthik says, “When we heard that Shankar was looking out for assistants, all of us from the film school attended the interview. I was among the few selected from about 400 people,” he beams.
