Having worked mostly with newcomers in his previous films, director Vasanthabalan says he was petrified at the thought of working with experienced actors for his upcoming period film Kaaviyathalaivan . Since the film is about theatre in the Madurai of 1920s, he cast experienced actors such as Siddharth, Nasser, Prithiviraj and Thambi Ramaiya. But, he didn’t want to lose control over creative decisions. “With newcomers, I could mould them and ask them to do exactly what I wanted. When I started working with actors such as Siddharth, Nasser and Prithiviraj, I wasn’t sure if they would let me work in peace,” says Vasanthabalan. However, he was in for a pleasant surprise. “There were times (in Kaaviyathalaivan ) when I would just give the actors their dialogues and let them do their thing. I realised how easy it was to direct actors who knew what they were doing,” he says. Kaaviyathalaivan is an A.R. Rahman musical and will feature 20 songs.
Along similar lines
Just hours after the first poster of Kamal Haasan’s Uthama Villain was disseminated to the media, alert Internet users did a quick search to make sense of the colourful poster. The results were astonishing. The poster closely resembles the photograph of a Theyyam performer in the Malabar region, shot by French photographer Eric Lafforgue. Well, in this digital age, looks like nothing can ever be taken for granted.
