Coffee with Karthi and Kajal

The actors on their favourite moments together in Naan Mahaan Alla and the projects they’d love to work on

Kajal Aggarwal and Karthi during an interview in Chennai Photo : S. R. Raghunathan

If Karthi and Kajal played their real selves in a film, coffee would be an important character. They first met at a coffee shop — on the sets of their film, Naan Mahaan Alla — and now, they are ‘instant ambassadors’ of Bru. They’ve done a couple of films and worked on the commercials together — and the comfort level between the two actors was evident at a recent meet-and-greet-fans event organised by the coffee brand.

Excerpts from a chat between the two:

Karthi

My most memorable moments shooting with Kajal

It has to be the shooting of the ‘Iragai Poley’ song in Naan Mahaan Alla . I remember director Suseenthiran telling me that he had eight scenes with us in mind but no footage.

We decided to turn it all into a song… and it remains a memorable number even today.

I’m looking forward to…

My upcoming film with Mani Ratnam. We will start shooting in July and we’re in the process of finalising things. He wants me to lose some weight and try out a few looks.

It is surreal to think that I have moved from the assistant director’s room 10 years ago (Karthi was Mani Ratnam’s assistant director) to his room — and discussing scenes and shots.

Something people don’t know about me

When I was in the US, I was caught by the cops for speeding and charged a fine of 200 dollars. I didn’t have so much money then — I was still a student — but I certainly didn’t want to spend a night behind bars. I called a few of my friends frantically and they bailed me out of the situation.

Dream coffee date

I’d like to have coffee with Farhan Akhtar.

He’s an all-rounder in the film industry and I have heard many good things about how he goes about planning all his productions.

I’d like to go for coffee with him and ask him about his insights into films.

Kajal Aggarwal

My most memorable moments shooting with Karthi

It was the first time we met — we were shooting at a coffee shop, interestingly.

There was also another time during the shoot of our first film together, when we had a lot of time to kill during an extended wedding sequence — I remember Karthi telling me so many jokes that I was laughing all the time.

I’d love to be…

Part of the Avengers series. That would be so cool. As most characters are etched in people’s memories, they’d have to create a new character for me. Perhaps, I can be a girl who time-travels.

Something people don’t know about me

I love adventure sports. And, I love cooking.

Dream coffee date

I’d love to go on one with actor Nagarjuna.