‘I want to make appa proud’

Says director Bhaskar, whose Bangalore Naatkal is all set for release. In a chat with sudhir srinivasan

Bangalore Naatkal

Bhaskar, or as he is popularly known, ‘Bommarillu’ Bhaskar, may have earned his chops as a director in Telugu cinema, but he is actually a Tamilian, having been brought up in Vellore. As Hyderabad has been his home for close to 15 years now—during which time he has made hits like Bommarillu and Parugu —speaking Telugu is now second nature to him. It’s evident when he tries to tell me how important it is that a director be content from within, and instead of using the Tamil word, ‘ Mananimmadhi ’, he uses its Telugu alternative, ‘ Manasanthi ’. Upon realising his gaffe, he laughs at the irony of it all. After all, Bhaskar—and a celebrity classmate of his—had stepped out of the Chennai Film Institute with dreams of making Tamil films. However, both ended up making their debut films in Telugu, and while his classmate—Mohan Raja—went on to establish himself in the Tamil industry too, Bhaskar never quite managed to find a way back to his native state. Until now. Life has now come full circle, and he is all set to release his first Tamil film, Bangalore Naatkal , a remake of the Malayalam blockbuster, Bangalore Days . He finds this rather ironical, as “most of my Telugu films have been remade in other languages, and now I’m making a remake.”

Interestingly, Bhaskar could’ve made his first Tamil film almost 10 years ago. “But I didn’t want to make Santosh Subramaniam , as I’d invested too much time and energy in its original, Bommarillu .” Bangalore Naatkal almost slipped from his grasp too. “The plan was to bring together several top Tamil and Telugu actors and make a bilingual. But as I’ve realised after wasting a year, it is extraordinarily difficult.” The difficulty doesn’t have so much to do with actors’ egos as it does with their dates. “ Bangalore Days is a great script; every actor gets a strong role. But it’s almost impossible to get the dates of actors from the two industries for a few days.” Bhaskar had almost given up on the remake when PVP Cinema, the producer, asked him to make the film in just one language. “As the Tamil actors, especially Arya, had committed, we decided to make it in Tamil.” Bhaskar was initially concerned about Rana Daggubati’s portrayal of Fahadh Faasil’s role in the original. “But he performed it with alarming ease.” The real challenge was in adapting Bobby Simha to Nivin Pauly’s role of a simpleton. “It was difficult due to the sort of roles Bobby has played in the past. But I think he’s played it really well.” Only Parvathy has been retained from the original film. “That’s because I didn’t think we had anybody here who could play that role as she did. Now, after shooting, I am surer about that. She’s an actor who makes the director’s job so easy.”

Bhaskar disagrees that

Bangalore Days , being as popular as it was in Chennai, didn’t warrant a remake. “You’re just talking about the cities. I doubt that anybody in interior Tamil Nadu would have watched it.” He also had another reason, a more personal one, for remaking the film. “Sometimes, life takes us to different places, and after some time, those places come to mean so much.

Bangalore Days reminded me a lot of my first years at Hyderabad… my Hyderabad Days, if you will.” He and his team spent months trying to identify the essence of the film, before beginning shooting. “We had to figure out the theme of the film, in order to have the same effect that

Bangalore Days did. We identified it as ‘change’. In the lives of each of the main characters, there is so much change. I also thought that the idea of the main characters being cousins was interesting.”

Bhaskar is now a fairly contented man, having finally realised his dream of making a Tamil film. But for deep satisfaction, he will have to wait until the film’s release. “When

Bommarillu became a huge hit, I took appa to a theatre in Chittoor. He asked another viewer, “ Padam epdi irukku ?” The viewer responded in Telugu, appreciating the film. My dad didn’t understand much at all.” During that moment, Bhaskar decided he would some day make a film in Tamil, if only so he could secure his dad’s admiration. “I look forward to watching Bangalore Naatkal with him.”