The years have rolled back inside MGR Film City. Outside one of the buildings, a team is working hard to re-create the year 1995, and the first-day-first-show atmosphere of the release of Rajinikanth’s Baasha. Huge posters of the Superstar, dressed as an auto driver (his character in the popular 1995 film), adorn the exteriors of a building even as the crew busily ferry the lights in and out.
All this action is happening on the sets of upcoming Tamil web series Postman, which features ‘Munishkanth’ Ramadoss as a huge Rajinikanth fan. The release of Baasha has an indelible mark on this character and a few others. “He makes it a point to watch all Rajinikanth films on the first-day-first-show, but when Baasha releases, he has some important work and has to deliver some letters,” reveals director Prashanth Gunasekaran about the plot. The dilemma Munishkanth’s character faces is: should he deliver the letters or watch Baasha ? He opts to do the latter, and that one decision changes the lives of many people in the years to come.
Munishkanth Ramadoss plays a die-hard Superstar fan
The core concept was written by Balu Sharma and Sridhar Goud. “We wanted more nativity to the idea, and that’s where Rajinikanth and the release of Baasha came in,” adds Prashanth, who has assisted Vikram Sridharan on several ad films, worked with director Hari on Singam 2 , and made Yaanum Theeyavan. “ Postman was a different experience,” he says, “The speciality in this series is that there are several characters and multiple locations, and handling all that was a big challenge.”
Back in time
‘Munishkanth’ Ramadoss clearly remembers watching Baasha in 1995. “I watched it in both Coimbatore and Madurai during its release time,” he recalls, “I was, and still am, a huge fan of Rajinikanth.”
The actor got a chance to relive his memories all over again while shooting his debut Tamil web series. “It took me back in time,” he says nostalgically, harking back to a time when he was still nursing dreams of becoming an actor.
Stills from the sets of 'Postman'
Munishkanth has established himself in the Tamil film industry as a comedian; one of his last memorable outings was in Rajinikanth’s Petta. He still has film offers – he has Dhanush’s upcoming film with director Durai Senthil, Irandam Ulaga Porin Kadaisi Gundu and Market Raja MBBS coming up – but the decision to do Postman was a well thought-out one. “I had my apprehensions first when the offer of a web series came by,” he says, “I had just come into cinema and was seen in a few films, but didn’t know if I should venture into projects that would appear in the mobile phone. A few friends advised me to go ahead with it, saying it was the future, and the fact that I play a fan of Thalaivar was the icing on the cake.”
Postman, produced by Sameer Bharat Ram for Zee5, is slated to release later this month
