Sundeep Kishan, who plays the lead in Kannadi, says shooting for the film was memorable for several reasons.
For one thing, the film is a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, so he had to shoot similar scenes with different actors in both languages.
“I had to shoot a scene with Karunakaran in Tamil and then do it again with Vennila Kishore in Telugu. That took some getting used to,” says the actor.
But that wasn’t the tricky bit. “According to the story, when I look into the mirror, I see a reflection not of myself, but of Karunakaran’s/Vennila Kishore’s character. So whatever movements I made, they had to do replicate and vice versa. So, to get it right, Karuna and I spent a lot of time studying each other’s timing and body language in order to get our movements and dialogues in sync. Then I did the same with Kishore for the Telugu version as well. All this took a lot of time and energy,” he adds.
Sundeep also tells us about the unforgettable experience they had when shooting for three nights on the outskirts of Chennai.
“We were shooting in a dry, barren area. When we settled in to shoot, we got quite a scare when the villagers gathered told us that wild snakes frequented that area in the night. Since we had to complete the shoot, we somehow braved our fear and continued filming.”
But there was one helpful precaution the locals advised.
“They said that the snakes would avoid areas of light and heat. So during those three scary nights, as soon as the take was completed, all of us would huddle together near the big shooting lights in order to be safe. Those were some really tense moments for all of us!”