This is your 10th film in Tamil but the first in Telugu. Did it feel like a début?
It may be my first Telugu film, but the audiences there know me because the dubbed versions of Naan Mahaan Alla and Pandiya Naadu were hits. I’ve been getting offers to make a Telugu film for long but nothing materialised until now. But it certainly wasn’t easy to make a bi-lingual where the Telugu version is as pucca as the Tamil film.
How did you go about that?
Both films are authentic in their own right. Apart from the lead actors, 15 artistes were used interchangeably. If Soori is the comedian in the Tamil version, it is Satya in Telugu. Even performances were handled accordingly; Soori’s comedy will be subtler than Satya’s in C/o Surya .
Speaking logistically, how tough is it to make two films at once?
We shot a major portion of the film in Vizag because it looks like Chennai. If a straight Tamil film takes 40 days to complete, making it into a bi-lingual will add another 20 days. So we get two films in the time it takes to make a film and a half.
Can you explain why it takes shorter?
With the success of Maanagaram , Sundeep Kishan has become ideal for a bi-lingual...
I too liked his performance in Maanagaram a lot. Actually, I had signed him for this film even before Maanagaram released. Back when I was making Jeeva , I also began shooting its Telugu version simultaneously, with Sundeep playing the lead. But there were date clashes and I couldn’t complete it.
From sports films like Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu to an offbeat film like Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai . You’re one of the few people who’ve made films in diverse genres.
I’ve been lucky that way. But my biggest hits so far have been Naan Mahaan Alla and Pandiya Naadu and that was a while back. So I need a big commercial hit now. That’s why I chose a sure-shot subject like Nenjil Thunivirundhal’s . It’s a pucca commercial film, but friendship is the emotion that drives it. The boys who played the villains in Naan Mahaan Alla are back in Nenjil ... and so is Harish Uthaman, who was in Pandiya Naadu .
You’re calling this a commercial film. It’s quite difficult to place you as a particular kind of director. Which of your films is closest to who you actually are?
I think that has to be Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu... that film was in my genes. But Jeeva is what I loved making the most. But I need commercial hits, so I get to make films like Azhagarsamyin Kuthirai. It’s simple... I make a film for producers and then I make a film for myself.
So are commercial films tougher to make because they don’t come naturally to you?
Not really. It’s actually the opposite. In a commercial film, there are whole scenes where I don’t have much to do. For instance, action scenes and song sequences are totally left to the choreographers. But when I make a film like Jeeva , every single shot is mine. That doesn’t mean I’m alien to commercial cinema. When I moved to Chennai to become a director, I was a huge Vijayakanth fan!
If money wasn’t a factor, how different would your films have been?
For starters, my films would have had bigger stars. I really wanted Dhanush to act in Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu . At that time, our stars were averse to making sports films, but I think they’re open to it now after Sultan and Dangal. I even tried to pitch Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai to Kamal Haasan.
But you did manage to make Rajapattai with Vikram...
I can’t blame anyone, but there were problems with that film right from day one. But it’s a film that taught me a lot. I realised that if you fail with a big star film, then you’re finished. All my projects dried up and I had to produce my own film to get back. I started giving a lot more importance to scripts.
Is it true that a lot of your scripts are inspired from your life?
Not all, but a few. There are entire films which have nothing to do with me. But Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was taken from my father’s life and its romance portions were from my own. Karthi’s character in Naan Mahaan Alla is a lot like me. And Vishal’s character in Pandiya Naadu was all me as well. I used to stammer until I was 15 and I used that in the film. If I speak to someone who stammers, I begin to stammer even now.
What kind of films did you want to make when you moved first moved to Chennai?
I wanted to make films like the greats; Balachander, Bharathiraja, Mani Ratnam, Shankar... I couldn’t work with them and I realised life was tougher than I had thought. Looking back, those were the best years of my life. Other than money, we had everything else and that’s when I decided that if I make 25 films, I should at least be proud of 10 of them. I’m in that process now... it’s not about making money. My son should be proud to say his dad made these films.
