He featured in two Malayalam blockbusters, thrill And AveshamAnd now filmmaker Jeethu Madhavan is all set to make his Tamil debut with it scene, For Suriya starrer Jeethu, regardless of the language, the focus remains on serving the story and making a film that the audience will enjoy. Produced by Suriya and Jyotika, view It stars Suriya, Nazriya Nazim, and Naslane and is set to release on November 6 for Diwali.
In this exclusive chat with NDTV, the director talks about what drew him to Tamil cinema, his experience working with Suriya, and why he believes the boundaries of regional cinema are slowly disappearing.
“Later awesome, Suriya sir asked if I had a story that could be made in Tamil. When I got the story of the scene, I felt that it could be performed in Tamil and Suriya sir would be perfect for the role. I told him the story, and he liked it; I thought I could complete another film (Balan: Boy) before we went on set as he was busy with other commitments, but we went on the floor in a month or so,” Jeethu begins. view.
Not many Malayalam directors have ventured into Tamil cinema in recent years, so was language the only issue? He says, “I wasn’t particularly worried about it. I tend to go with the flow and don’t overthink things. Doing something big or small, or working in a different industry, doesn’t scare me. I know, speak and understand Tamil and can judge dialogues. This is important because my films rely heavily on dialogues.”
Ask him what inspired him to write viewAnd the filmmaker says he can’t talk about the story. “I’m hiding some small things because I want the audience to experience the film without knowing them beforehand. It’s not necessarily a big surprise, but the impact will be better if people go to the theater without these details,” says Jeethu.
Working with Suriya is an experience that almost all directors love, as he is known as a committed, hardworking actor. And Jeethu is no different when he says, “He is very professional and eager to make a good film. His focus is on giving his best and making the film better. I didn’t think he was a big star or that the challenges were big because of his height. He never made me feel that way; I had the same experience working with Fahadh Faasil.”
Malayalam actress Nazriya Nazim and Naslen also joined the cast, but Child: Boy The author states that this casting happened organically. “It wasn’t deliberate; it came one person at a time. Nazria was in my mind for the role from the beginning. Her character has a fine line and can go in different directions, so I wanted someone who could make it feel natural. She has a natural way of delivering humor, and I felt she nailed it. And I’ve always wanted to work with Neslen,” he smiles.
One aspect about Suriya that impresses him during the shoot is that the Tamil star used to ask him if a shot was okay after each take. “He would keep improvising, and I would give suggestions, and he would never tire of so many retakes. In fact, I remember we did 20 takes for one scene constantly improving every take. Even before I processed one take, he would be ready for another, bringing a different insight to the performance each time. It was like this was his first film, when the director said, OK. Suriya wants to improve and improve until then. Until we get the best,” he praised.
but view The crew also included many people from the Malayalam film industry, and Jeethu attributes this to the comfort and creative freedom that comes from working with people he trusts and whose abilities he understands. Suriya was a bit nervous about some unorthodox crew choices, but he trusted the filmmaker.
“My cinematographer, Vineet Augustian, was relatively new, and the editor, Ajmal Sabu, had worked as a cinematographer on films including Premlu and had not edited a film before. Suriya asked me why the cameraman was becoming the editor and why I was bringing in a cameraman who had never shot anything. And I have faith in his editing prowess, he said of the trailer for Romcham. had edited, which made me feel that Suriya was ready to see how things went and that we were going to make something good,” says Jeethu, who is also introducing noted Malayalam music director Sushin Shyam.
Diwali is a time when big films are released in South India, and with it scene, India’s biggest film The Ramayana: Part 1 Nayanthara’s Mukuthi is slated to release with Amman. However, Jeethu dismisses concerns about box office competition, saying, “I’m probably too stupid not to worry about that. I don’t take results-oriented pressure on myself. People should have expectations after a director’s successful films; that’s why we work to make good films. We have to fulfill those expectations instead of blaming the audience. They’re coming to see the film, Suriya, Karthi, and they’ve really enjoyed the film. And part of this movie.”
The director roped in YouTuber and Prithbungal fame Dravid Selvam to pen the dialogues. scene, And he says working with him was a barrel of laughs. “My friend Gautham (who was my colleague when I was working in IT in Bangalore) translated the first draft of the script into Tamil. I wanted someone who understood the pulse of the audience and knew how to deliver dialogue punches at the right time. The writer had to be spontaneous throughout the shoot and work with me as I tend to make changes and click on my first meeting. Great,” he notes.
While Jeethu was busy in his story scene Child: Boy was directed by Chidambaram and became a resounding success. “Around the time view About to go into pre-production, Chidambaram asked me if I had a good script. I am a huge fan of his, and I told him Child: Boy That I was planning. He liked it and started the project. I was happy with its success,” he elaborates. Would they have directed this film differently?” of course My way of presenting the film is very different from Chidambaram’s film, so I would have presented it differently. It was interesting to see this collaboration.”
The Malayalam filmmaker has received offers from the Hindi and Telugu film industries but is taking his time to explore them. “I only do one film at a time and my next film is in Malayalam. I will decide what I want to work on after that,” he says candidly. Meanwhile, there are a lot of expectations from him and Suriya for the scene. The interesting trailer suggests that Suriya is playing a cop, a villain, or perhaps a dual role. When you ask Jeethu about this, he laughs and points out, “It took a lot of effort to create confusion, so I don’t want to clear it up in one word!”
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