Sivakarthikeyan is more confident now, says 'Kakki Sattai' director
After the super hit Ethir Neechal, director Durai Senthilkumar has once again teamed up with Sivakarthikeyan for Kakki Sattai releasing on Feb 27 Unlike their previous film, now Sivakarthikeyan has become a star and his films are reaping gold at the box office. In this exclusive chat with us, director Durai Senthilkumar talks about Kakki Sattai, Sivakarthikeyan’s tremendous rise in stardom and much more…
Despite an entertainer, Ethir Neechal had an underlying emotional current in Nandita’s characterization. It also reminded the audiences about a real life incident. Can we expect similar thing in Kakki Sattai?
Yes, I agree that Ethir Neechal had an emotional quotient and it drawn from a real life incident but Kakki Sattai is pure fiction which will talk about a social issue in a cop’s point of view and how he tackles it. Here too we are having a strong message but a cop’s job is not to fight for his family, he has to fight for problems faced by public as well.
During Ethir Neechal, Sivakarthikeyan was just a newcomer but now he has moved up the ladder to be one of the most sought-after actor
I could see a drastic change in everything, right from dialogue delivery to body language, he has improved a lot. During Ethir Neechal, I had to explain many things but now he is giving me options to choose the apt expression needed for a particular situation which will be evident in the big screen.
Above all, I would say the important factor for an actor is his confidence level and it will come only after success, needless to say Siva has got that in plenty now.
Did you have Dhanush in mind while writing the story of Kakki Sattai?
When I first wrote the script of Kakki Sattai, my only aim is to get Dhanush’s call sheet. Having said that, I prepared an unusual script and genre many directors would not have narrated to him, and I used to call it as ‘operation Dhanush’(Laughs).
As I had Dhanush in my mind, I wrote the film based on how an actor like him would justify the cop role which by itself became a unique characterization. Later when Sivakarthikeyan came on board, we only made some minor changes as both Siva and Dhanush have lot of similarities.
The songs in Kakki Sattai are shot in exotic locations beautifully. Your comments
Generally, I love to hear and watch good songs may be that would have been the reason for your compliment. Being a commercial director, I always wanted to concentrate in each and every department, be it comedy, songs or fight sequence all demand extra-detailing.
Also, my aim is to be a successful commercial director for which I have to attract young audience and indeed they get attracted only by good songs and eye candy visuals.
Tell us something about the comedy in the film
Like in Ethir Neechal, here too the comedy is in sync with the script and having Sivakarthikeyan on board is an added advantage while writing such comic portions.
Both Kakki Sattai and Ethir Neechal are the titles of yesteryear classics. Any sentimental reasons ?
Initially I never had big interest in naming the film as Kakki Sattai and I opted for a title called ‘Taana’. Later we needed a catchy title which also should be in Tamil for obvious reasons, we can’t opt for over the top titles like ‘Idi’ and ‘Minnal’ for a Siva’s film and I also don’t want to name the film like general cop films like Singam or Alex Pandian as it will give a mass hero feel to the film.
Later, we decided to finalize Kakki Sattai as it is unique and describes the police uniform at the same there is a subtle mass factor in it. But one thing is sure, here after I will not opt for old film titles (smiles)
You come from the Balu Mahendra and Vetri Maran’s school of direction, so can we expect a serious film from you like your mentors?
No, I don’t see me directing serious cinema in future. I’m not a serious person in real life and all I want is to give good commercial films.
Tell us about Escape Artists’ involvement in Kakki Sattai promotions?
The biggest strength of Escape Artists is that they have an excellent back up of seven distributors and they function like a team which helps the movie to get a wider reach.In coming days, promotions are the key as we have to get the ROI (Return on Investment) within two weeks and Escape Artists are having a unique and massive promotional strategy. For Velai Illa Pattadhari, they released the trailer in nearly 800 theaters in Tamil Nadu and they did the same for Kakki Sattai which really helped our movie to get the much needed buzz.
I would say having a distributor like Escape Artists make you feel luckier as they are doing excellent job in reaching your film to the target audience.
