Leading Hindi filmmaker Sriram Raghavan's latest film, Merry Christmas, starring Tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi and Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif is now out in theatres. Shot simultaneously in Tamil, the hit director recently sat down with National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, and spoke about the one thing that was unexpected for him with what Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif brought to Merry Christmas.
Known best for his films Agent Vinod (2012), Badlapur (2015), and Andhadhun (2018), to name a notable few, director Sriram Raghavan opened up about Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif in Merry Christmas and said, "When I started it, I was very fascinated by this casting. This film depends a lot on the chemistry of the actors. But, when it was sort of coming together, that's when I realized that we're getting that. Before release, I can't say anything nice about the film. I mean, I'm supposed to say, but I feel very hesitant to. I feel very odd doing that. So, it's come together, and in my head it was a small little movie. I said, 'I don't want any worry of any budget and luckily we're okay on that.' It's not like it's a huge budget. So, for me, it was just that we managed to pull it off with these two."
Sriram Raghavan further stated, "Vijay (Sethupathi) as an actor I discovered... every actor you work with... I've never worked with him, but I've seen his performances. So, when I started working, I started meeting the man, discussing, interacting, and so much, and there's so much he's contributed to the film in terms of acting. I would have thought of in a certain manner and he would just say, 'What if I do it like this?' I'd say, 'Gee, that's not a bad idea.' So, it was stuff like that."
Watch Merry Christmas director Sriram Raghavan in conversation with Baradwaj Rangan in the video below:
