How did this film happen, with you, Hariharan and M.T.Vasudevan Nair coming together after so long, a gap of time?
It was twenty years back, in 1989, that we had got together to make Oru Vadakkan …, which was taken from the folklores of Kerala. The film got many awards and I got the National award for that movie, along with of course Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s film too. And after that, we were thinking of doing another film on the same lines. We thought of many stories from the folklore. Then we started thinking of a historical. But the thing was that earlier Kerala was divided into many smaller kingdoms and hence there were not many war heroes, who could have an appeal all over Kerala, in cinematic terms. It was then that we discussed Pazhassi Raja, the king who led a rebellion against the British to protect his crown, his kingdom. It was all there, recorded in the history. We just had to do some amount of research and fill up some gaps.
What made you think of such a movie, once again on the same lines as Oru Vadakkan …?
There is no similarity between these two movies, except of course the team involved. Oru Vadakkan …was taken from our folklore and Pazhassi Raja is history, pure recorded history.
This film is, reportedly made on a budget of 25 crores, a very big budget for a Malayalam film.
In fact, the start was small, but it later became a big thing. It had to, considering the pain taken, the characters included and of course many other aspects involved.
The film is being released in different languages too. Have you dubbed for all the versions yourself?
I have dubbed only for Malayalam and Tamil. I would have loved to dub for the other languages too. But I was busy with lots of other work too.
Would you call Pazhassi Raja commercial movie, especially since it’s a real big budget film?
Of course it is. Pazhassi Raja should not be seen as an art-house movie. It has all the ingredients of a commercial movie, though it is artistically made.
Pazhassi Raja has been made at a budget that could be called ‘improbable’ as regards the Kerala market. So how would the film be marketed?
As I said earlier, it all went up. But now that the film is made and ready for release on October 2nd, they have got definite plans to market it, not only in Kerala, but all over. The subject has much significance on the national level too. It’s not just history. It’s no period film either. It’s the story of a freedom fighter and hence it has national significance. And international too.
There are so many stars involved- Sarath Kumar, Padmapriya, Manoj.K.Jayan, Suresh Krishna etc.
All these stars play pivotal roles, all taken from history.
Did you have to prepare much for the role, especially since there is lot of martial arts involved?
Not much, I mean especially in acting out the character. As for the martial arts, I have done all that before too, in Oru Vadakkan … . It’s not a new thing for me.
But that was 20 years back. And the body has grown twenty years older?
I don’t think that matters. It didn’t matter for me at all. And I didn’t need much of preparation too.
But in 20 years, the tastes and sensibilities of the film-viewing public have changed. So, is it really wise to release a film with such a subject on a commercial level in today’s changed scenario?
Why not? It is a good film, made in a very planned and elaborate manner. You have the best of people working for it, including MT, Hariharan, Illayaraja, Resul Pookutty etc. People should like it. Anyway, let’s wait and see.
