Alex Pandian from Moondru Mugam, Adhi Narayanan from Kuruthipunal, Anbuchelvan from Kaakha Kaakha… Sivakarthikeyan has a tough act to follow.
As his director Durai Senthilkumar says, it is a coming-of-age film when an actor gets to play a police officer. “Especially so for Siva, as his father too was a cop,” says Durai, adding that it was an emotional experience for the actor.
Even though directors may not feel as strongly about cop films, Durai thinks it’s a genre commercial filmmakers can’t ignore. “I wrote the film with Dhanush in mind and narrated the script to him when I assisted Vetrimaaran on Aadukalam, but he was busy. After Ethir Neechal, when I got the chance to work with the same team, I decided to tweak the idea to suit Siva and his comic timing. But its soul remains the same.”
Durai was inspired by The Secret, a Rhonda Byrne book gifted by Vetrimaaran. He first called the film Taana, and later rechristened it Kaaki Sattai, after the 1985 Kamal Haasan film.
When I ask why he is making a habit of rehashing old film titles, he laughs and says “From now on, I’ll decide the title even before I write the script. If this film works, producers will sign me only if I have a rehashed title!” He talks of how he tried phrases like lathi and theepori but they didn’t work. “We picked Taana but changed it because we felt it might not work for B and C audiences, finally settling for Kaaki Sattai.”
Like the film, Durai's very career happened because of a book. “I came to Chennai from Karur to work in cinema, and quite by chance picked up a Sundar Ramaswamy book. This was when I was trying to work with Balu Mahendra sir. When he asked what book we had read last, I was able to speak of the stories from Sundar Ramaswamy’s book. Balu sir was impressed and took me on,” he says.
Durai’s biggest influences are Balu Mahendra and Vetrimaaran — not just in cinema but in life as well. “When we are assistant directors, we look up to the director as our guru. I used to imitate everything Balu sir did, including his gestures and body language. In fact, I started eating urga (pickle) with biriyani because I saw him do it. He said he could only teach us letters, but it was up to us to write, create and make our own voice. His influence on me went far beyond cinema.”