Venky clears his doubts at the script level itself: Sudha Kongara

Five years ago, director Sudha Kongara approached Venkatesh for the washed-up boxing coach part in ‘Irudhi Suttru’ but as the actor was not in best health around that time, he declined it. Sudha’s buddy Madhavan stepped in later. Released last year, the sports drama, after opening in very less number of screens, managed to win hearts and Tamil Nadu box-office too.

“When producer Sashikanth signed me for the project in 2012, I told him, ‘Sashi, if the Tamil version succeeds, I want to remake the film in Telugu.’ But I could make out from his reaction that Telugu version would never materialise,” she recalls, adding that three weeks before the Tamil version opened, Sashi got a fancy offer to part the film’s dubbing rights in Telugu. “He wanted to sell it off and even took the advance amount.

When I mentioned about the promise he had made, he said, ‘Listen, we are in trouble, we don’t have the money to release the Tamil version in the first place.’ His past films didn’t do well and I could understand why he wanted to give away the rights, but somehow I convinced him to give me a shot at the Telugu version. We got in touch with Venky through Rana. He watched the Tamil version and impressed by it big time, said he’d do the Telugu version.”

In his various promotional interviews for ‘Guru’, Venky told that he re-invented himself with the film and that the entire credit for it should go to Sudha. Ask her what kind of prep she undertook to present Venky in a new way and she says, “Besides watching most of his films, I’ve also tuned into his interviews because he’d be real there. I showed those videos to him and said, ‘This is the path we are taking in the film.’ Also, I’ve shot his scenes with three cameras, so he used to perform the whole scene in one go. Guess all these factors combined helped me to present him in a new way.”

She admits that Venky initially resisted script reading sessions but as time passed, he has turned into a guru for the cast. Describing the veteran as a director’s delight, she says, “Madhavan is an argumentative actor whereas Venky clears all his doubts at the script level or at reading sessions. On sets, you just need to tell what is expected of him, that’s it. He is a brilliant actor.”

So, what did her guru Mani Ratnam had to say about ‘Irudhi Suttru’? She informs that when she showed him the first cut at his Chennai residence, he said it’s ok. “On the fourth day, the film was moved to Sathyam Cinemas and I asked him whether he’d be interested to watch it in the theatre. He said yes and I sat next to him until the film got over. Post the show, he said, ‘I’ve loved it.’”

Does she plan to make a sequel? “With the content I got from my research, I can make ‘Guru 2’, 3 and 4 too. The script was over-written (120 pages) and we had to condense it to 90 pages,” she smiles, adding that her next would feature an actor who is familiar across both Telugu and Tamil industries. “An announcement would be made in a week.”