Sudha Kongara, who is gearing up for the release of Sarfira, the Hindi remake of her 2020 film Soorarai Pottru, recently revealed how it was different to work with Tamil star Suriya and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. The filmmaker also listed how despite Sarfira being a remake of Soorarai Pottru, it is different from what the audience has already watched.
In an interview with Galatta Plus, Sudha Kongara listed how the Akshay-starrer is different from its Tamil version, “I think when speaking the languages, in Tamil we read much faster, where as in Hindi, I realised they were reading it much slower. There are lots of differences. Seema Biswas, Radhika (Madan) made my life so fresh. I didn’t feel like I was doing the same film.”
She added, “And Akshay sir, he is a far more outgoing and ebullient person compared to Suriya. Suriya is more intense, tight, quite and gives that kind of a performance. The scenes they shot for is so different from each other. The proposal scene that we shot, Akshay is flamboyant, but with Suriya, its lot more reserved. So naturally the characters become different. So it was good for me.”
Sudha Kongara also recalled how the actors approached the characters and their method of navigating each scene.
She said, “I think the processes were different but where it landed was the same. Because I know Suriya is a lot more prepared and he gets better with time. He keeps telling me I get better and better with each take. But still we did just a couple of takes for Suriya, because we rehearsed it so much.”
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“Whereas with Akshay sir, he always kept telling me that my first shot is my best shot. But, no. I realised as he goes on with more takes, he gets better and better. I think we took about 5-6 takes. And he has a process where he shuts off from everything. He just wants to know the mood of the scene, the pre-scene, and post-scene, and he has his own methods of navigating it. He is never wrong. Maybe in the beginning, when we started to shoot, he was smiling way more than he was supposed to… he was looking a lot more happier than he should be… but, he settled in,” shared Sudha.
Sarfira, which was officially announced in 2021, is the maiden Hindi production venture of Suriya and Jyotika’s 2D Entertainment. The film is all set to hit theatres on July 12, unlike its Tamil version which had to take the OTT route due to COVID-19 pandemic. One of the many reasons that made Sudha Kongara direct the film again in Hindi was to take her film to a wider audience.
Apart from Akshay Kumar and Radhika Madan, the film also stars Paresh Rawal, Seema Biswas, and R Sarathkumar in important roles. Suriya is also expected to do a cameo appearance in the film.
The original film, Soorarai Pottru, inspired by events from the life of GR Gopinath, bagged the Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Background score awards at the 69th National Film Awards.
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