“Most choreographers nurture dreams of becoming directors someday,” says Saravana Rajan who turns filmmaker with the upcoming Jai and Swathi starrer Vadacurry. Like many choreographers before him, he decided to follow his dream after a 30-day stint on the sets of Venkat Prabhu’s Goa . After working on two of his films ( Mankatha and Biriyani) , he decided to make his own ‘fun’ film. “But I wanted to play it safe with my first film,” he says.
So, what’s Vadacurry all about? “The film is about the desires of the youth, their yearning for economic independence and the extent to which they are willing to go to achieve it.”
The inspiration for Rajan’s first film seems to have come from within. “Most of it is from my own life. Its protagonist is a not-so-well-off guy who desires an expensive mobile like his friends and tries every trick in the book to own it.”
Venkat Prabhu’s quirky way of thinking seems to have rubbed off on Saravana Rajan as well. Like his mentor, he has given his film a funny title and has roped in the desirable Sunny Leone for a song. Also, Venkat Prabhu’s regular Jai is playing the role of a lower middle class youth. Ask him if Jai was an obvious choice for the role, he agrees. “We have seen how good he was in Engeyum Eppodhum . Jai is an actor who can easily slip into the role of an ordinary guy.” And how difficult was it to make the transition from a choreographer to a filmmaker? He says, “It was quite smooth. In Tamil cinema, choreographers play an important role. The directors depend on choreographers to bring the songs alive on screen. So, choreographers have a good understanding of how directors operate. It doesn’t really require a transformation of the mind to make the switch.”
This is not to say that it has been smooth sailing for Saravana Rajan — Yuvan Shankar Raja pulled out of the film after scoring a song and Rajan had to rope in two young composers. “I wanted to finish the talkie portions before I start work on the songs. The idea was to spend as much time as possible on the songs as the success of a film depends on their popularity. I gave enough creative freedom to composers Mervin and Vivek to come up with a good line-up.”
So from counting steps to calling out ‘lights, camera, action’, Saravana Rajan seems to have put his best foot forward.
