Siva Karthikeyan, whose film Rajini Murugan released for this Pongal, has every reason to smile as his film has been doing exceptionally well at theatres across the state.
“I think the success of this film lies in the fact that we managed to get it released. Everybody knows the difficulty we faced before releasing it. We can’t blame anybody for it. There were people who even went to the extent of predicting that this film wouldn’t release at all. At one point, the entire team was heartbroken because this film is important to every one of us. Today, we take the film’s release itself as its first success. We are now visiting theatres to see audiences’ reaction. Though there was a delay, we’re happy the film was released for Pongal as this is indeed a festival film,” explains Siva Karthikeyan.
The actor is all praise for his director Ponram and cannot stop gushing about his co-stars.
“Keerthy Suresh not only speaks Tamil but also reads and writes the language. The director would give her the scene sheets, just like he would give them to us. Even if we added something spontaneously in a scene, she would respond accordingly. Keerthy has done an exceptional job in this film. In particular, she has carried herself so well in the song Un Mela Oru Kannu. That is the advantage of knowing the language,” he says.
When people with a great sense of humour get together, fun times are never too far behind. Smiles Siva Karthikeyan, “On the sets, Suri and I constituted one team and Keerthy and director Ponram were another team. We would keep pulling each other’s legs. Ponram sir would keep teaching Keerthi how to crack jokes at our expense. He would often tell her that to get her timing right, she would need to practise by taking swipes at us even when we were not shooting. Initially, Suri was under the impression that Keerthy did not know Tamil and was about to crack a joke. However, he changed his mind when I told him that she knew Tamil. So, it was good fun and all four of us became a good team.”
About Suri, he says, “We understand each other very well. Suri’s contribution to the success of this film is huge. Both of us don’t have egos. We don’t compete against one another, or try to outshine the other. Actually, we complement each other. If it is his scene, I would allow him to score. And he’d do the same for me.”
It is an undeniable that Siva Karthikeyan is popular among children. Considering that he is a Rajini fan himself, we asked him this: would he act in a remake of the Superstar’s hit film, Raja Chinna Roja (1989)?
“I think it will be nice. One thing about remaking Rajini sir’s films is that you can never remake films that are based on his image. However, we could attempt to remake his comedy films. I have nurtured a wish to remake his Thillu Mullu, it’s a good comedy play. Likewise, it will be nice if we could remake Raja Chinna Roja,” he says.