Sudha Kongara has been through this routine before, revealing nuggets from her in-depth research on the boxing scenario in the country that led her to write and direct the bilingual Saala Khadoos and Irudhi Suttru (Tamil). When we meet her in the city, she shows no signs of weariness doing the promotional routine all over again for Guru , scheduled to release on March 31. “Venkatesh’s interpretation of the coach’s character was different from that of Maddy (Madhavan), which made this film exciting for me,” she says, on directing the same story for the third time.
A Telugu who grew up in Tamil Nadu, she was eager to see this film in her native language. “This is a high-energy feel-good film which the Telugu audience will love. Pluck away the regional culture and put in Tamil flavour, it works there. It’s a pan-Indian film,” affirms Sudha.
Irudhi Suttru was almost getting dubbed in Telugu when Sudha requested producer Sashikant of Y Not Studios to give her one last chance to get Venkatesh on board for a Telugu version.
Sudha had directed the Tamil film Drohi (2010), which didn’t make a mark. “I was trying to find my voice and did that film with the arrogance of a first time filmmaker. Later, I sat back and realised I can do a decent job of stories close to reality,” she reflects. She had already written a sports-based story, centred on athletics. This was before she assisted Mani Ratnam in Yuva, Ayudha Ezhuthu and the Abhishek Bachchan starrer Guru . Sudha collects clippings of news items she finds interesting. In her dossier, she spotted a photograph of children from Chennai’s Royapuram, with boxing gloves. She learnt that children from families with lower income were sent to learn boxing so that if they do well, they stood a chance to get government jobs.
“I interviewed around 20 women boxers and all of them told me they learnt boxing to get a job. At one point, I asked one boxer if she had the passion for sports. She told me ‘put some food in my belly and I’ll talk about passion’,” recalls Sudha. A similar line found its way into her film. As she interviewed boxers and coaches, her script got strengthened. She met coaches who told her that the girls themselves didn’t have a vision and it was they who made international champions out of them. They were tough coaches who wanted perfection. A scene where the coach hits the student with a skipping rope was taken from a real incident. Similarly, a scene where a coach takes advantage of a woman boxer in a train coach was also narrated to her by a boxer.
Making Irudhi Suttru wasn’t easy. Though Madhavan stood by her, several producers backed out. “My friends told me it’s going to be tough. After three years I was at the end of the tether and thought of giving up. Mani sir said, ‘Isn’t this precisely why you should make the film?’ I felt a renewed energy and started looking for a producer again and found Sashikant.”
Sudha is ready with her next script but prefers not to talk about it until Guru ’s release. “I had written this earlier. I revisit stories and see if they are still living and breathing, because if you do a film you live with that story for another year. I can’t do a film in six months and scoot.” While she wants her films to make good money, she isn’t in a rush to churn out a number of films. “I’ve been in the industry for 17 years. I am over that phase of wanting my first watch, car etc. If at all I make films till I die, I want to make ones that last,” she signs off.
Working with Mani Ratnam: It wasn’t just filmmaking that Sudha learnt from the veteran director. “Every three months there would be a script, not all of which become movies. But it was a great experience working with the team on nine scripts,” she says. From Mani Ratnam, she learnt the importance of staying focused. “He comes to office at a certain time and spends time writing. In all these years when he’s shooting, his first shot begins at 7am. We’d see his car coming in around 6.28. He is disciplined and expected us to stay focused. If I didn’t have such a tough guru, I would have settled for less.” The filmmaker, she remembers, never differentiated from male and female assistants. “After a point, I didn’t want to do costumes. I wanted other responsibilities. On the sets of Guru , I was clearing the crowd from the shooting area in Kolkata. Abhishek (Bachchan) pulled me away and asked why I am doing these tasks. Mani sir didn’t interfere. He let me do any task in the unit; gender didn’t matter.”
Grit and glory: In 2006, India hosted Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championship. India won four gold medals, beating the previous champions Russia who settled for three gold. Many women boxers who participated came from humble backgrounds and their victory wasn’t widely celebrated or remembered. This was much before Mary Kom became the face of Indian women’s boxing.
