Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi admits that she lacks one major skill required to become a director in Tamil cinema. She’s not talking about the technical know-how to execute what’s on paper to screen. She isn’t referring to the creative aspect either, insisting that she has atleast two or three script ideas at all times. What doesn’t come naturally to her, she says exasperatedly, is the ability to engagingly narrate her scripts, “especially to people I don’t know”.
This, she feels, is one of the reasons why her second film Kaali took so long to happen. “Producers in Kollywood don’t want to read scripts; they want to listen to them. Even if one’s confident of the script, narrating it is different. A small change in their expression and I lose all my confidence. It’s something I need to work on.”
Having completed dozens of such sessions, she feels she’s better now, but there’s still a long way to go. “I wish I could just stick to writing alone,” adds Kiruthiga. “That’s what I love doing the most. Writing gave me the energy to keep going when things weren’t working out like I’d planned. Even when I’m having the dullest conversation with a stranger, I catch myself analysing him as a character and how he’d fit in one of my scripts.”
A dark subject
She currently has three fully-written scripts with her, all of which were written in the past five years. “A romantic comedy, a crime thriller and a drama.” Kaali , her second film, is the drama she’s referring to. It is her first film with Vijay Antony, who has also produced and composed its music. “I watched him in Pichaikaaran and Shaitan and when I was told that he’s listening to scripts, I pitched the crime thriller to him. There’s this notion that he’s only interested in dark subjects.”
Antony, however, was expecting something different from Kiruthiga. “He wanted to see if he can pull of romance and comedy but no one was offering him such roles. He asked me if I was interested in remaking a film. But given my love for writing, that was a no-go. So I took some time and worked on my third script for him. It has romance, comedy and a lot of emotion. He immediately said yes.”
Though Antony calls himself a bad actor, Kiruthiga insists that she was more that happy with her lead. “He kept giving me what I wanted, always sticking to the ‘meter’. It was Vijay Antony the music director who was more challenging to work with,” she laughs.
Lucky in music
Having worked with Anirudh for her first film, Vanakkam Chennai , there was a lot riding on Kaali ’s album. “I was too demanding and kept asking him for options. Antony is both the producer and the lead actor. He could have easily settled for something but he didn’t. He would have been happy to give me 10 songs if I’d asked him for it. I think I’m very lucky when it comes to music.”
Kaali is scheduled to release late next month and soon after, Kiruthiga will begin working on her next. “I don’t want to take so long to make my movies. I got into direction by accident, but I enjoy it. People assume it’s easy for me to make films because my husband (Udhayanidhi Stalin) is both an actor as well as a producer,” says Kiruthiga. “But because my husband wasn’t producing this film, other producers assumed it wasn’t good enough to be made. My political background didn’t help my case either. It was like I had to prove it to myself that I could get a film made. My script needed to be the hero.”
