Director Vishnu Varadhan on ‘Nesippaya’, returning to Tamil cinema and writing a contemporary love story

You have done a Telugu film before. But does working in a Hindi film and getting such distinctions influence the kind of stories you want to tell?

Wherever I go, I make sure the team works the way I work. When you are making a film, you should be comfortable doing it. With Shershaah, I broke out of my comfort zone to try something exciting that tested my limits. It did extremely well and we feel blessed.

What was it about ‘Nesippaya’ that intrigued you the most?

It’s a fictional story inspired by many real-life events that fascinated me. After Shershaah, there were a lot of biopics and military films but I didn’t even remake Billa. The idea is to explore something new and working on a film like Nesippaya after Shershaah was never on the radar. When I saw Akash (Late actor Murali’s second son) and really started liking the boy, my producer, Sneha, and I wanted to do a film with him and made this story. I like a lot of drama in my films and in Nesippaya, you can expect more heavy-duty drama than just love.

Even when most of your films are action-packed gangster dramas, most of them — except the Ajith-starrers — have a passionate love track. Why has it been a genre you never dove into despite it being a strength?

I’m glad you find it so; I’ve always thought romance was never my forte. When you grow as a filmmaker, you want to try different genres as your sensibilities and understanding towards certain aspects such as love and relationships change. Nesippaya’s script was built with that in mind and has several layers and intricacies. To attempt a love story with drama is a new for me.

Love is the story of two souls and while the levels have changed over time, true romance is timeless. In today’s generation, people realise true romance after they miss it. There’s confusion between love and infatuation. It’s become easy to break off and go but if they really try to understand and realise mistakes, that’s what true love is and Nesippaya talks about that.

Your initial films starred actors like Arya and Bharath who were also in their nascent stages. What’s it like working with a bunch of newbies, 22 years after your debut?

It’s really nice actually. It doesn’t matter if I’m working with newbies or big-league actors; it’s the film you want to make. The fact that I’m launching a new actor is more exciting because there are no expectations. It’s more challenging and interesting when you are trying something new like introducing a new actor. It gives me an adrenaline rush as a director.

What I go through, how I feel, what I see and what I am in today’s time is how Akash’s character would react. It’s fascinating to write a character who is stuck in a situation and his ideologies, without being judgemental. And when you club that with a female character whodiffers from that, that’s where you get to play with conflict. These things are purely based on my understanding of love.

Interestingly, apart from its young lead cast, the film also stars a bunch of veteran actors like Prabhu, Sarathkumar, Khushbu and Raja. Your films have mostly had an ensemble cast, with each character having their own arcs. How do you bring in such characters organically?

Fifty per cent of a character’s job is done when you get the casting right. The rest of it is where the performance part comes in. Who else can I get for a dynamic person who doesn’t speak much but exudes so much aura than Sarath sir? Similarly, Kalki Koechlin’s character feels tailor-made as her role is that of a foreign national with an Indian origin who can speak Tamil.

You make sure every character contributes to the film. A friend character, in this film for example, isn’t there just for the sake of it; he’s there to remind the lead character that he’s a messed-up guy and doubles as a catalyst to move him to where he wants to go. It’s exciting to give the seniors a different, unassuming and unpredictable look; Raja sir looks very different in Nesippaya.

At a time when filmmakers want to be affiliated with a genre or a style of storytelling, it’s hard to box a filmmaker like you — who gave a ‘Sarvam’ after ‘Billa’ or ‘Yatchan’ after ‘Arrambam’ — within a specific category…

I see it as a plus for myself because I get to feel excited whenever someone comes up to me with a new idea. The idea of probably doing a sci-fi excites me. I would never do horror because the genre scares me (smiles). It’s about pushing boundaries and exploring yourself without being boxed; I feel that’s how you keep identifying yourself. When Billa worked, I could have stuck to that formula of doing a stylish action film but my survival would have been short-lived. As someone who doesn’t know what my next film would be about, being calculative isn’t possible.

I’ve gone through a rough patch through which I felt like I stopped exploring. When I retrospect, the question that lingers is why I got into this profession in the first place. I soon discovered that I did it for the joy of making films.

From set songs in the early 2000s to today’s Instagram reel-ready tracks, how has your musical journey with Yuvan evolved over time?

When I was young, I believed a film’s music album had to be balanced. Over time, I realised it’s unnecessary to add a pointless duet or special number. I began focusing on the narrative and songs helped move the narrative along. Nesippaya’s album is very strange because it only has male voices save for one song. Earlier, I might’ve tried to balance it by adding a duet or a woman’s voice. Giving the film what it needs is more than enough to attempt something new.

Your films are known for being sleek and stylish. At what part of the script do you zero in on the aesthetics?

They happen at the very core of the idea. The film’s soul will have a tone and an approach to how it can be made. Only when we crack it at the beginning, it gets better with writing and develops with the script. Every scene has its mood and it dictates camera movements, while locations dictate the colour tones. I nail my colours and look and never change them, irrespective of what may occur during the shoot. I fear changing them during the shoot would dilute the content.

I do a lot of prep and edit my script before shooting. That’s how I was able to finish Shershaah in 60 days including its war sequences, and it’s almost the same for Nesippaya. When you do the prep work, you go in with full clarity. I have already shot the scene in my head before going to shoot. When you are prepared like that, there’s no space for chaos and filmmaking turns fun. There’s no pressure, only pleasure.

It’s been 20 years since your sophomore directorial and first original script, ‘Arinthum Ariyamalum’, hit theatres. How does it feel looking back at it now?

I haven’t even realised so much has happened and so much time has passed. From my first film, my policy has been to give my hundred per cent so that I’m never put in a position to point fingers. There are no excuses and given two of my films have had an average run, I have been made privy to that side too. Going through that phase made me realise it shouldn’t stop me. There’s a psyche that I’ve created that I’m going to make films until I die and when I know nobody can change that, I have nothing to worry.

You were supposed to team up with Salman Khan for a film. What’s the status of that?

That film has been pushed for a while because of logistical issues. My next film depends on the story I want to tell. I have never had commitments before and that’s why I’m unsure who my next film will be with. But in Hindi, I signed a two-film deal with Karan (Johar) and after Shershaah, there’s one more to be done. I can pick and choose what I really want to do and I’m glad to have that advantage.