Akshay Kumar recalls creative differences with Sarfira director Sudha Kongara: ‘
Akshay Kumar recalls creative differences with Sarfira director Sudha Kongara: ‘
Sudha Kongara directorial released theatrically on 12 July
However, Akshay Kumar recalled creative differences that he had with the director
saying that it took them a week or so to sort things out.
Sudha had directed Soorarai Pottru, the original Tamil film upon which Sarfira is based. Over an interview, Akshay voiced that he found her way of working to be irregular from what he is accustomed to, but noted that she was gracious enough to accept his requests, like when he asked her to shoot an emotional scene with multiple cameras, and film longer takes.
Soorarai Pottru is the syntax of Tamil cinema which l isn’t something that Bollywood should be trying to emulate
In the midst of the interview when Akshay was asked if he thinks directors are also responsible for shaping a performance, he said, it’s very much as he is the captain of the ship. He hopes to do another film also, but he’s going to be with that film throughout. So, yes, the director makes a lot of difference. The producer makes a lot of difference; the technicians too make a lot of difference.
Asked about the first day of shoot on Sarfira, Akshay said, “The first day of shoot… It always takes time for the actor to blend with the director. He has to learn their way of working and much time was consumed on Sarfira, maybe five or six days. And then, after that, it was very smooth sailing.” When further asked if he could elaborate with some examples, and Akshay voiced that Sudha is a director who sets up her camera, and tells the actor what they need to do. But there are many directors who ask, ‘You tell me what you’re going to do, and I’ll move the camera accordingly. Sudha was telling him what he has to do, not the other way around.
Akshay cited the examples of other filmmakers that he has worked with, and briefly explained their processes. He said that Priyadarshan lets actors do their thing, but knows exactly when to rein them in. Shankar is ‘very particular’, and doesn’t allow actors to deviate even minorly from what he has envisioned. Rajkumar Santoshi allows his actors to exercise complete freedom, while Neeraj Pandey trims his own dialogue and expects actors to fill in the gaps that lines normally would.
In an earlier interview with Sudha also recalled the conflicting points-of-view that they had on set initially, and said that she was far more comfortable working with Suriya on Soorarai Pottru, because she’d known him for decades. “With Akshay it’s first and was meeting him for the first time.
The first six days, he wasn’t happy. He was like, ‘What is this girl making him do all this rubbish?’ So then he and the producer spoke to her and she said, ‘You do whatever you like to do, and I will tell you when it isn’t going right.’” She said that after she showed Akshay a cut of a scene, he was convinced that her process was working. Like Soorarai Pottru, Sarfira is based on the life of Capt Gopinath, the man who created India’s first low-cost airline.
News Edit K.V.Raman
