Debut director GVR Vasu seems to have struck the right chords in his first film. In Kavacha, which is slated to release this week, Vasu will direct veteran actor Shivarajkumar. Based on the film Malayalam film Oppam, which starred Mohanlal in the lead, the film has been reworked to suit local sensibilities.
The film features the Hatrick hero in a blind man’s character, along with Kruthika Jayakumar, Isha Kopikar and Vasishta Simha, Baby Meenakshi, Iti Acharya in the cast.
“Retaining the original plot of Oppam, I narrated the redrafted version to Shivanna,” says the director, adding that initially, the Century Star was not ready to be a part of the remake.
However, after he heard the story, Shivanna was convinced that the plot is universal and inspiring. ‘I had closely watched Shivanna during the making of Killing Veerappan. That’s when I felt he would fit the role perfectly,” says Vasu, whose friend M V V Sathyanarayana will be producing the film.
Admitting that he did have butterflies in his stomach, having to directed an established star, Vasu says the challenge was portraying Shivanna outside a regular commercial plot.
“Shivanna is a star with over 123 films to his credit. While he has proved his versatility with films like Jogi and Tagaru, he has also done films like Janumada Jodi and Thavarige Baa Thangi. Portraying him as a visually-impaired person was a huge responsibility. It wouldn’t have been possible without Shivanna’s cooperation,” he says.
To get deeper into the film, Vasu himself attempted the role. This, just to get an idea of the character. “As a director, I wanted to first judge the emotions of the character before I started handling the film,” he explains. Having associated with RGV in a couple of projects, he waxes eloquent about the collaborations. “To me, RGV is a university, from whom the learning process is infinite,” he says.