Come Diwali and the biggest release in Kollywood is this Suriya-Nayanthara starrer, rumoured to have been sold at Rs 40 crore, an all time high for a Suriya film. We catch up with the star and superhit director KS Ravikumar.
Suriya starts off by saying, “I have always wanted to work with KS Ravikumar, he’s a director who is really young at heart. Initially, I was a little tensed about working with him as I wondered if I could satisfy him but actually working with him was easy. I learnt a lot from him, I have this tendency to deliver dialogues in a fast stream, he taught me to slow down. I was with him even at the film’s script stage and amazed at the amount of effort he put in. We heard about 10 to 15 scripts before finally picking this Ramesh Khanna script. To me, every film must have a different colour and there must be no repeat.”
On his character, Suriya elaborates, “I play the role of an assassin from Calcutta and the film is his life story. However, this will be a family entertainer and the stills may have me with a gun but let me assure you that there is no blood or gory scenes in the film. You can expect plenty of action-packed sequences. And of course, Vadivelu’s comedy will have you in splits. The film has been made in a way that repeat audiences will still find something to enjoy.”
Continuing, he says, “I also play a 10-year old in the film which will be a highlight. This idea just came up casually. We were looking for a child to play this role in the flashback and as we were looking for the right one, the director just said, why don’t you do it? We had to work a lot on this to get it right, we shot twice and were not happy. Then we brought in a CG specialist from Mumbai, Govardhan to do the face. This is the first time someone is attempting this, a few others have tried fleeting shots but not something like this with 10-15 minutes of footage.”
At this point, director KS Ravikumar chips in, “Suriya did a lot of homework for this role. He watched the mannerisms of 10-year olds and selected one of them whose body language and expressions he closely followed while emoting. He put in a lot of effort to make his voice sound like a child while dubbing as well. Suriya has a passion for cinema and is always trying to do something different. I have worked with many artistes but I think amongst the younger generation he is the number 1. Incidentally, Nayanthara has given a very good performance in the film too.”
Suriya feels highly about his co-star Nayanthara too, “She looks far more beautiful in Aadhavancompared to her earlier films. She is a complete professional and though her makeup used to take about 1½ hours, she would be on the sets five minutes before me!”
On veteran actress B Saroja Devi making a comeback, he says, “She is acting in a film after 12 years and she recreated the world of the sets in the sixties for us. She even showed us a lot of the expressions used in dance sequences of yesteryears. She is truly a legend.”
As a last word, Suriya says, “The producer Udayanidhi is more like a friend and very involved. He has spared no expense in producing the film and gave us plenty of freedom.”