This was the first scene we filmed with Oduvil Chettan and Meena. My only earlier film was Vyuham, an action film and I was very specific on the technique and since there was hardly much dialogues, we more or less stuck to the shot break downs.
Yodha was a different kettle of fish, altogether. With great actors like Mohanlal and Jagathy, I realized quite early that improvisations on dialogue was to be the order of the day. The preparations for the chess scene was the first we shot with them. Sasidharan Aratuvazhy, our script and dialogue writer along with me and the respective actors, would go over the scene and any improvisations would be incorporated. Mostly these would come from Jagathy chettan and to a little extent Oduvil Chettan (the way he says ‘Mooooan’ in the scene). So while filming the scene, Jagathy chettan added the line - kalangiyilla.. to which Meena chechi added - “nallonam kalaki oru glass koode tharate”, Jagathy declines the offer and drinks it in one gulp and we had a shot of Oduvil chettan looking at it in expectation. The expression was to die for and we wanted to underline it and that is when he asks for some to which Sasidharan wrote the dialogue on the spot - “Ashokenu Ksheenamaakam” ..... which Meena Chechi delivered so classically. Little did we then realize that it would create such an impact on the audiences.