Chennai: Rajesh M Selva won appreciation when his film Thoongaavanam was hailed by critics and audience. He is all set to return with the release of Kadaram Kondan 19 July. Starring Vikram, Akshara Haasan and Abi Hassan in lead roles and produced by Kamal Haasan, the trailer promises action-packed entertainment.
In a free-wheeling chat with NewsToday, Rajesh comes off as a very easy man to speak with. “To be honest, nobody liked the title,” he smiles.”I finalised it just a day before showing the first look. Even Vikram sir said, ‘Title solla kashtama iruku’ (It is difficult to say the title). But I was adamant to stick with it.”
While working on the story, Rajesh wanted to set his two lead characters Athira (Akshara) and Vasu (Abi) living in an unknown land. “I thought of Mauritius as it has a large Tamil population,” he explains.”However, due to logistical reasons, we couldn’t shoot the movie there. Finally, the film was shot in Malaysia.”
Rajesh focused on casting actors who evoke as a “cute couple.” Interestingly, Abi Hassan wasn’t his first choice. “We held many auditions before selecting him,” he says. He dives in further to point that to solidify authenticity in Kadaram Kondan, he had written back story for every character. “I write back stories as it becomes easy to frame my screenplay,” explains Rajesh. The director is pleased with the performance of the actors.
Rajesh comically narrates about the stress he had to endure while filming. “I had a very big responsibility to please Kamal sir,” he says. Rajesh recalls the time when he showed him the final cut. “I was very nervous as he started taking down notes, page after page,” laughs Rajesh. “But when the movie ended, Kamal sir said “It works for me.” Only then I sighed in relief” He adds with a grin, “The amount of notes he took down made me feel that he might give me a new script.”