DIRECTOR A GOKUL KRISHNA INTERVIEW

If I have no commitment, I'd be more than happy to work with him. But I don't think he'd let me work as an assistant. He'd ask me to stand on my own legs. In fact, he has this amazing script with him and I have requested him to let me work with him in that script, if he's ever going to take that up. 

After my association With Vishnuvardhan, I was planning to start my own movie. I had a script of my own and I was in search of a producer.
 

That's when I happened to meet the creative producer of Yash Raj Films, Mr. Padam Kumar. He informed me about their plan of venturing into Tamil, with the remake of Band Baajaa Baarat.
 

I was all excited about it and recorded my interest in taking up the project. I pitched in my ideas for the remake and soon I ended up as the director. 

I had watched that movie long back out of compulsion. One Sunday afternoon, I was at Ega theatre and I had no other choice than to watch that movie. I thought I would just go in and sleep through the movie. But once the movie started, I found myself enjoying the flick. After that, I returned home, without the slightest idea that I would me making the same movie in Tamil. Life has strange things for us in store.

I come from a huge family and every marriage has been a memorable gathering. That gave me the confidence that I will be able to wield the megaphone for this movie. To add more of our South Indian flavor, I researched a lot about the weddings in South and came up with a number of varieties.

There was absolutely no interference from the Yash Raj people while making the film. I gave them my requirements and they got me what I wanted. Even though it was my first film, they gave me the complete freedom to act upon my decisions. More than anything, they invested their trust on me.
 

For the lead characters, Shakti and Shruti, we wanted fresh faces. We in fact tested more than 300 new artistes. Nothing really worked out. Then we came across Nani. He had the charm, talent and the freshness we required. Personally, I thought he has the same kind of charm, Navarasa Nayakan Karthik had when he was at the prime of his career.
 

As far as Vaani Kapoor, Yash Raj's casting director, Sanu suggested her. We saw her screen test for a different movie and flew to Mumbai to audition her for Aaha Kalyanam. I was apprehensive initially considering her North Indian background. But the moment she auditioned, I fixed my mind on her.

We actually tried some voices. Eight to be exact. But I liked the cuteness in his accent. Of course it has a Telugu influence to it. But I was afraid the originality would lack if someone else dub for him and more over I wanted that unique accent of his.
 

We gave him a shot and it really worked out well. At the end of the day, a dubbing artiste cannot perform like an actor.
 

Anyway, who talks proper clean Tamil nowadays? So what if Nani's Tamil has a bit of Telugu influence?

Vaani made it very easy for me. She came a month before the shoot and went through rigorous dialogue reading sessions. Not just her lines, but she also learnt others' dialogues and prepared herself for the shoot. The best thing about her is that she'd never make use of the prompt. She prefers to do it all by herself.

She had a dialogue in the movie where she swears the hero, saying "Daridram... Moodevi". She asked us for the meaning and we said that's how way we greet people in Tamil. She took that pretty seriously and called a few unit members, Daridram... It was a chaos.

I don’t think it’s the North Indian flavor. Pink is their favorite color. We use a lot of Red, Blue and Yellow. Kum Kum is red, most of our Saris have blue and the flowers we use are yellow. North Indians don’t use marigold, while we use them extensively.

Agreed that we have used some heavy beats in the music... Kadha Kadha is about a Sowcarpet Sait’s marriage. Those Dols and other heavy instruments are part of their tradition. As far as Bon Bon, we have used Thavil, which is our instrument.

As a matter of fact, even we use Dols and drums for our Janavasam. So, it’s not something we haven’t been using. 

Well, I was nervous, of course. But that’s the time you become your own critic and you look for mistakes. At the same time, it’s like what they say about one’s own creation - “Kaakkaiku than kunju pon kunju”. I was proud. Just to think, few days back these were all just on paper, amazes me. I might have seen the movie hundred times before that. But it is always a special feeling for all the directors to watch the first copy with the technical crew.

Apart from the regular, ‘well done… Keep it up’ thing, he said, “Now that you have done with your first movie, start your next.”

I want to try every genre. I like watching light hearted movies and animations. I’m also a fan of biopics. So I want to experiment everything. 

Apart from Vishnuvardhan, I love, K Balachander, Mani Ratnam, Bharathiraja and K Vishwanath. I’m also stunned by the new talents that are ruling the industries now. I enjoyed Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, Pizza and Soodhu Kavvum.

It’s definitely healthy and feels great to be associated in this era where there are drastic changes in the film making styles and tastes.