Director Jeethu Joseph is a happy man. His Tamil debut Papanasam, the remake of the Malayalam hit Drishyam has been garnering positive reviews from critics since its release on Friday. Drishyam, which was made on a budget of under 5 crores collected an unprecedented 60 crores from Kerala and outside - a record, which was beaten only recently by Premam. Jeethu Joseph talks to The Quint, about his films and the inspirations behind them, working with the two legends - Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan and his upcoming projects.
Q: Drishyam was the highest grossing Malayalam film in 2013 and it also had a record number of shows outside of Kerala. Were you skeptical about a remake as many had already seen the original?
JJ: No, the film is about a father-daughter relationship. It’s something universal and would work in any language. There may be a bit of cultural differences, but the emotional element is the same. That’s what we’ve kept in mind while doing the Tamil remake. We took care to treat it as a separate film rather than a remake-so it’s totally like a fresh Tamil film.
Q: How did it feel to be directing Kamal Haasan?
JJ: Well, it was a big surprise. Many people from Kerala and here had warned me saying Kamal Haasan is also a director-so there’ll be interferences. I was even prepared to face it actually. But from the first day of the shoot, he kept to himself and would not even look at the monitor after we shot his scenes. From my experience, he was totally a director’s actor, just like Mohanlal.
Q: Did you receive any suggestions from him?
JJ: He would suggest something every now and then, but wouldn’t insist on it if it didn’t work. Among the ones I have included, the Tirunelveli accent was his suggestion. It has worked well for the film. He also felt we shouldn’t name the movie Drishyam again. We had three or four options and we chose Papanasam.
Q: How do you compare Papanasam with the original? As a filmmaker which one was more satisfying for you to make?
JJ: Both were satisfying for me. The main change is that Mohanlal played George Kutty-a Malayali Christian while Kamal Haasan plays a Nadar-Suyambu Lingam. So naturally, there’s a slight change in mannerisms of the characters. Also George Kutty uses a Bicycle in Malayalam, while in Papanasam the hero uses a moped. I’ve often spotted whole families travelling on a moped in Tamil Nadu, so I thought it suited Suyambu Lingam more. We went with that image in the first-look posters too.
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Q: Meena’s been replaced by Gauthami in Papanasam. She’s also making a come-back to Tamil cinema after about 15 years. Tell us about her role.
JJ: Both of them are talented artistes. Meena’s role had a certain naughtiness to it. I just had to do a bit more of briefing for Gauthami. She’s a rather serious, doting mother in Papanasam.
Q: Who is a director’s delight- Kamal Haasan or Mohanlal?
JJ: Both of them are India’s living legends, I enjoyed directing both. They have presented their characters in their own style-George Kutty is very subtle while Suyambu Lingam is very emotional. Both have played the roles according to the cultural sensibilities of their state-that’s all.
Q: Mohanlal wasn’t your first choice for Drishyam. In Tamil you had approached Rajinikanth as well?
JJ: Yes we had approached Mammootty before Mohanlal, but he had date issues and told us we would have to wait for a year and a half. That’s when I approached Mohanlal. While remaking the film in Tamil, Suresh Balajee, Mohanlal’s brother-in-law who has produced the film, asked me who would fit the role in Tamil. I said both Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan would fit in and that’s when he approached both of them. Rajini sir was slightly apprehensive about the scene where the cops beat him up as he thought it might not go down well with his fans. But it was a very integral scene in the film and could not be avoided. Later Rajini sir called up Suresh Balajee and agreed to do the film, but by then we had finalised our talks with Kamal sir.
Q: Do you think films like Bangalore Days and Premam benefited from the success of Drishyam?
JJ: Defintely! Drishyam opened up newer avenues for Malayalam cinema and the films that succeeded it have benefitted immensely. It was a small movie that happened to win audiences even outside the state. Now Premam has broken newer grounds that Drishyam wasn’t able to. The films coming after Premam will now benefit from it. I’ve plans to subtitle my next project because now people already know about my films and there’s a certain expectation level. That will ensure that my other films too reach the Drishyam audience.
Q: You fought off piracy allegations against the film by Sathish Paul, many said it also resembled The Devotion of Suspect X—you’ve denied all that? But were there any reference points for the original film or Papanasam?
JJ: Never. Everyone has a unique talent, I’m very interested in making investigation thrillers. I used to read a lot of James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes novels. My earlier films Detective and Memories had elements of thrillers. The only one film that was inspired was My Boss (From The Proposal), which I had stated even before its release. In fact I had scripted Drishyam way back in 2010-it was supposed to be directed by an associate director. But he wanted to incorporate more humour and make a few changes—and I felt if he wasn’t keen, I would direct it myself. The seed for Drishyam came about when a friend of mine related a tale of a feud between two families, who were close to him. He said he didn’t know whom to support and that’s when I imagined how it would be to be in a similar situation. I initially tried to make it into a courtroom drama and then a comedy. It took about 6 months to evolve in to Dhrishyam. There’s this scene where he misleads the police by putting the cell phone on a truck—it was derived from a real-life instance reported in newspapers. That’s why, I’ve always maintained that it’s a family drama rather than a thriller.
Q: Any films or filmmakers who have inspired you?
JJ: Yes I’ve always been inspired by Spielberg. He’s a good story teller. In Malayalam it’s Padmarajan-I like all his films, especially-his Moonam Pakkam and Thoovana Thumbikal are classics. Among films, I really like The Shawshank Redemption a lot.
Q: Any plans to do a Hindi film? Any favourite actors you would like to work with?
JJ: There’s no harm in wishing, so I would definitely like to do a Hindi film. I want to direct Aamir Khan some day.
Q: How is Life of Josootty shaping up –what is it about?
JJ: It is an autobiography of a man called Josootty which traces his story from childhood till his 40s. It’s a predictable story told in a different way. Dileep is the hero. After that, I am making a film with Prithviraj in the lead.
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