Dolly defends Pawan Kalyan

As he was preparing his own script for Pawan Kalyan mid-last year, Dolly aka Kishore Pardasani was asked whether he’d be interested in helming ‘Katamarayudu’, a remake of Tamil hit ‘Veeram’, as original director SJ Suryah exited the project to concentrate on his acting assignments.

With his script still needing some time, Dolly accepted Pawan’s offer as he found the idea of ‘Veeram’ the central character being averse to women interesting. “We’ve elevated the love factor in the remake as we were sure that people would love to see Kalyan (Pawan) in a strong love story because it’s been sometime since he has featured in a full-fledged love story,” Dolly begins.

Also, he adds that never sees films as a remakes or original screenplays. “If I get inspired from a remake, I will not hesitate to remake it but I will ensure to give the script a complete new spin,” he exults, admitting that for ‘Katamarayudu’ he was never asked to stick to the original. “When you remake a film, you have to work under certain limitations because the original film is a hit. But over here, I was given the liberty to do what interests me.

“Although Akula Siva wrote some portions of the film, I envisaged ‘Katamarayudu’ in a particular way and with the help of writers like Bhupathi Raja, Vema Reddy, Vasu Varma, Srinivas Reddy and Sai Madhav Burra, I managed to give it a touch that I was comfortable with.”

While Pawan Kalyan’s fans went gaga over his performance in the film, there was a section which felt that he was his original self than being the character, causing the audience to lose emotional connect with his role. Did he come across such feedback? “No, he was in the character 100 per cent.

Also, many people told me that he was looking completely new and his acting too was new,” he maintains, pointing out indirectly that Pawan is a director’s actor who believes in giving multiple takes. “For some sequences, I’ve taken many takes from him. In fact, he asked me multiple times, ‘Are you sure or should I give you one more?’ At the same time, I’m someone who will not okay a take unless I’m sure about it.”

Nonetheless, Dolly admits that they erred when it comes to Shruti Haasan’s costumes in the songs “Laage Manasu Laage” and “Emo Emo”—both of which were shot in Europe. Blaming it on the Mumbai designers, he concedes, “We did monitor the songs but at times certain situations slip out of your hands.”

In fact, many Pawan fans felt that the actor too was not at his usual best in the aforementioned songs. Ask him about it and after a long pause, he chose to evade the question. While he is keen on the script that he has penned keeping Pawan in mind to make as his next, Dolly is not in a hurry. He has directed only three films after making an impressive debut with ‘Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam’ in 2009.

“I don’t make films for money; films are my passion. I can make money through other means. The script you pen might take, sometimes, three months (to be completed) or sometimes three years. Unless, I’m happy with the script, I will not take it to sets. I don’t take time factor into consideration at all,” Dolly ends.