For a cinema-obsessed 90s kid who remembers that time when some of veteran director Joshiy’s films were big event films, some of which were festival releases, the release of his son Abhilash Joshiy’s directorial debut, King of Kotha, is a nostalgia-triggering moment. Those early mass entertainers attained much popularity because they were backed up by emotion-driven storytelling, with most of them having a strong family connection, some of which were films made by Joshiy. This kind of storytelling was also the impetus behind Abhilash’s decision to take on King of Kotha’s script.
“I didn’t believe in creating a mass moment just for the sake of it,” he says. “It had to be something that came through the story. The story and characters were as important to me as the action, and that’s the primary reason for picking this script (by Abhilash Chandran). It wasn’t a typical hero-villain story; it also delved into the greyness of these characters. I wanted to stay true to the story without relying on gimmicks, aside from wanting it to be a bridge between the new and old sensibilities. I wanted all kinds of audiences to like it. I don’t know if it’s exactly what they expected.”
Excerpts:
The Dulquer-Shabeer arc in the film is the most compelling. Exploring it must’ve been an immensely appealing prospect for you.
Indeed. It’s not a black-and-white relationship. As you’ve seen in the film, Kannan’s (Shabeer) love for Manju (Nyla Usha) eventually turns him against his childhood friend. He had to because he couldn’t live without her, and her arm twisting caused everything to go haywire. I get the sense that a lot of people may not have gotten that aspect of the story. Instead of going for the usual, tried-and-tested approach, I treated it in a more mellow fashion to create a difference.
Was Shabeer the first choice for Kannan, and had you considered him dubbing for the role in his own voice?
We had looked at names from here, too, but they were either reluctant to play the antagonist or had date issues. Then we had to approach Shabeer, and he turned out to be perfect for the part; he did justice to Kannan Bhai. As for dubbing it in his own voice, we tried doing that initially, but taking into account that he wasn’t that fluent in Malayalam, despite knowing Malayalam, we realised it wouldn’t work out as his Malayalam had a Tamil flavour. And since Kannan has equal screen space as Raju, having him speak in his own voice that long might prove distracting, so we opted to go with a dubbing artist instead.
Which was the most challenging task for you?
Well, one of them was filming the intro sequence of Dulquer, which we shot first before anything else, and it took three days. It was tough for Dulquer too, because even though I had a clear idea of what I wanted in the scene, I needed to figure out Dulquer’s mannerisms, which got finalised after some trial and error. A lot of people were in that scene, and we had to shoot it first because we had date issues. The other challenge, naturally, was the humongous cast. As a first-time director, it’s not easy to handle a crowd of two thousand, along with multiple locations and actors, with just eight assistants. You have to consider the possibility that sometimes the veteran actors may not take you seriously, but they respected my choices and delivered the performances I expected of them.
We often hear some amusing stories of your father’s remarkable command of his sets and how he doesn’t tolerate unpunctuality, among other irresponsible behaviour. Since this profession requires one to navigate all kinds of egos, how sure were you of doing the same?
Since it’s my first film, yes, it was a challenge, but I guess it would get easier a couple of films later. So far, I haven’t had any issues I couldn’t handle because all the cast members were very cooperative. When I used to work with my dad and see him strict on set and getting upset when things didn’t go according to plan, I would picture myself as a filmmaker making a movie and handling things more lightly. But while making King of Kotha, the immense pressure would occasionally get to me, and I would get slightly irked when not all of the 2000 people are doing exactly what I expected them to do, and then I think that maybe my dad also would’ve felt this way at one point. Those who work in the industry know how hard the filmmaking process is. So this is why, when I watch someone else’s film, I try to find some positive things even if it doesn’t work for me entirely.
I imagine the burden of expectations set on the son of a legendary filmmaker must’ve been overwhelmingly heavy.
Yes, they expect my first film to be like the 100th film of my dad, so that burden is definitely there. I didn’t have it that easy; I’ve had my share of struggles. Everyone thinks people will easily give me dates just because I’m director Joshiy’s son. No, that was not at all the case. If that were true, I would’ve started making films in my 20s; instead, I had to wait till my late 30s to do it. The audience doesn’t see that I’ve faced all the struggles that any debutant filmmaker does. It’s not that I straight away got into King of Kotha. Before this, a couple of other projects didn’t materialise. My initial idea was to try some lighter films, like a feel-good romance or travel films or something.
Is it true you had to reshoot some portions?
Yes, the climax fight, which we initially had shot outside, in an open space. But then we felt we could’ve done it much better within the interiors. There was no issue with the fight per se, but there were other variables to consider, and we concluded that it lacked the necessary punch. The first attempt lacked the novelty factor.
How long did it take to envision the fictional landscape of Kotha?
It took a couple of months of pre-production work. Since this is a fictional town, there was some confusion as to where to place it, so we did some pre-visualisation along with the necessary computer-generated imagery (CGI), and we took the CGI team along with us to the locations, and finally created a map to give distinct appearances to both Gandhigramam (Chemban Vinod Jose portions) and Kotha. The former was much closer to the sea. It was all for creating a novel experience for audiences.