Even before shooting started on Trisha Illana Nayanthara, first-time director Adhik Ravichandran found himself working three shifts a day. He would narrate the script to at least three producers. “I don’t think there were any producers I hadn’t pitched the script to,” Adhik says. “Some producers would listen to the first half on one day and then ask me to narrate the second half weeks later. I guess most of them liked the story, but given its bold theme, they were all hesitant to take a further step.” 37 producers said no. Finally, C.J. Jayakumar of Cameo Films, gave Adhik the go-ahead.
The film, which traces the life of a man from school to the mid-twenties, has already created a sensation, thanks to a kissing scene and the already cult punch-line ‘ Virgin pasanga saabam ungala summa vidadhu di ’. Browsing through interviews online, Adhik felt that G.V. Prakash would suit the lead role.
“I pitched the idea to him even before he announced his entry into acting. So when I went to his studio, he assumed that I was approaching him for composing music.” Given G.V. Prakash’s innocent image, isn’t his casting odd in an adult comedy? “Brother, there’s an S.J Surya in all of us,” Adhik says. “G.V. sir takes time to loosen up, but once he does, there’s a whole other side to him. I guess most people only get to see his ‘Vikraman’ side,” he laughs.
The shoot of Trisha… featured a very different working relationship. While Adhik directed the film, his father Ravichandran worked as its associate director. Ravichandran has been an assistant director for 20 years and is yet to make his own. “My mother wanted to shield me from the whole cinema business.
Seeing my father’s struggle, she didn’t want me to enter the field. So until I was in class 10, I had no clue my father was an assistant director.” Sitting beside his son, Ravichandran adds, “I come from a generation where we would abide by our parents’ decision. By the time I realised my heart was in cinema, I had already spent many years doing what my father wanted me to do. Adhik chose his own path and he is far more confident than I ever was.”
Adhik wanted to do a VisCom course, but his mother’s aversion to cinema pushed him to engineering. I disliked my course and I began writing scripts right from my first semester. By the end of the course, I had 13 arrears.”
Determined to make his foray into films, Adhik cleared all his arrears and took his father’s help to work as an assistant director. Adhik says, “No director will reject you if you’re the son of a director, actor or producer. But because I’m the son of an assistant director, none of the major directors took me in.” Adhik finally managed to assist director Major Ravi in a Malayalam film before venturing out on his own.
While auditioning for assistant directors, Adhik felt his father’s experience would add great value to his film. Adhik believes that his bond with his father has improved because of Trisha … “We would hardly talk before. It’s during all the stress of shooting the film that I really got to know my dad.”
However, the two kept their relationship a secret from the film’s crew. Ravichandran says, “I had not told anyone because I didn’t want other assistant directors to behave differently towards me because I was the director’s father. After 10 days of shoot, I noticed G.V sir and the heroine Anandhi laughing at us. Anandhi had noticed how similar Adhik’s mannerisms were to mine and the two were having a ball of a time, comparing how similar we looked and reacted to situations. That’s when I confessed to the crew that Adhik was my son.”
For someone whose struggle to make a film continues till today, how does Ravichandran feel seeing his son’s work on the big screen? “When Adhik wanted me to take him to Sathyam theatre for an audio launch of a friend’s film a few years back, we didn’t even get space to stand,” Ravichandran says. “To think my own son’s film has been launched in that very screen in Sathyam….it was too emotional,” he says.
Ravichandran says he will direct a film in 2017. Next week, he will be going to Kerala to pitch one of his ten scripts — most of which are love stories — to a producer there. “In my generation, we believed love was pure. But Adhik tells me love is mixed. That’s the difference.”
