This challenger extends to actors as well. For cinematographer Sathyan, it was a task to shoot in forests and give the night a different tone altogether. I could have chosen to show her but I felt that the project shouldn't just pose a challenge to me, but to everyone involved in the team. In Kaithi, it is said there is a strong influence by a female character but she does not seem to be shown. In Maanagaram, you never revealed the names of the main characters.

To tell the struggles of many characters in a way that the audience feels it, in two hours and thirty minutes, is a challenge. I want this to be a part of all my films, including Kaithi. This will happen only if the writing is potent. Now, I wouldn't have pondered much on their backstories, but the struggles they face should seem fair to the viewer who should empathise. If you take Maanagaram, for example, it is a story that mostly happens over one night. We should feel it at every stage - on paper, during narration, while shooting, and finally, on screen.Īnother similarity between Kaithi and Maanagaram, at least from what we have seen is that the universe seems populated with many characters. Whenever I go to shoot or work on a film, the excitement the team and I feel about a project is crucial. But more than a genre or an idea, it is about what excites you. You have shared that you are an admirer of 'intense' films. When I discussed it with a few more people, I heard them going, 'Nalla irukku la?' That egged me to work on it. But by the end of the day, the story had become just a little bigger. I had seen the report and was just talking about it with my assistants. While one may come across several stories and ideas, what makes an idea worth expanding into a film? You have mentioned that the spark for Kaithi came from a newspaper clip.

Imagine how precise we need to be about continuity. We shoot for 60-61 days to tell a story that happens in six hours. It might sound easy to write a story that unravels over a small duration, but in reality, it is tough. I guess writing and execution come more naturally to me in such stories. Perhaps we can call it your comfort zone? And we settled on Kaithi, a complete action film. I wanted to make a film that is in the same zone as Maanagaram, but in a different genre. But I chose this because this was right up my alley, while those scripts needed more work. I had earlier worked on two other scripts.

I can't exactly say that it is what the story demands. Do you like writing stories that happen in restricted periods? Kaithi is a story that happens in the span of a single night. Maanagaram, your first film, was a story that happened over 48 hours.

Karthi paruthiveeran patri joke