Ahead of the release of Sarfira, the Hindi remake of Soorarai Pottru, the writer-director talks about her approach to directing Suriya and Akshay Kumar, their different acting processes, and more…
Edited excerpts:
Can you talk about what Suriya brings to the part (in Soorarai Pottru) versus what Akshay brings to the part (in Sarfira)?
I think the processes were different but where they landed was the same. Suriya is a lot more prepared and we did a lot of readings with him — and he is that kind of guy; he keeps telling me that he gets better and better with takes — whereas with Akshay sir, he always tells me that his first take is the best. But I realised that as we took more takes, he got better and better. He has a process where he shuts off everything else and just wants to know the mood of the scene — the pre-scene, post-scene, and that particular scene. He has his own methods of navigating that, and he is never wrong. He is always pitch-perfect. Maybe in the beginning of the shoot, he was smiling more or he was looking happier than he should be, but he settled in.
Every actor has a different equation with their director. How did you approach directing Suriya and Akshay?
I’ve known Suriya for 25-27 years. It’s much easier to tell him what I want– and it’s the same even with Maddy (R Madhavan). It’s very friendly and casual. I can take the liberty of telling Maddy, “We have no time, just do this,” and it will be done. But with Akshay sir, I think it is ‘sir’ first of all, and this was the first time I met this gentleman. And since I have no filters, it’s almost similar because I think somewhere in the first six days, he wasn’t very happy. I was because I was doing it the way I wanted to. He wanted to do things his way. And then we had a talk and the producer spoke to me and he also spoke to me, and I said, “You do whatever you want to do, I’ll tell you when it’s not going right.” I also had to let go because I thought I had created the perfect character with Suriya and that there couldn’t be anyone better, and that’s the way it had to be played. And then I realised I was suffocating this actor who had his own method. And after that, one day we were shooting and, he came and sat next to me and said, “I have a way of performing and doing things. I have a process. This is the first time I’m trying to understand what’s going on in your head. I’m trying to give you that,” and, I said, “Very good. I love it.” So, I think from there, we made our peace and we had a wonderful time. I really enjoyed working with him.
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