National Award-winning filmmaker Vetri Maaran's Viduthalai: Part 1 has turned out to be a commercial and critical success, and is now out on streaming on ZEE5. Released as a director's cut, the first installment is out on the OTT platform as an extended edition of the film, which stars Soori in the lead role, with Vijay Sethupathi appearing in a cameo, while directors Rajiv Menon and Gautham Menon are seen in pivotal roles. Vetri Maaran, Rajiv Menon and Gautham Menon recently sat down with National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, to talk about their experiences filming Viduthalai: Part 1, while also opening up about their roles in the second installment, which is expected to come out later this year.
Explaining about Gautham Menon and Rajiv Menon's roles in Viduthalai: Part 2, Vetri Maaran said, "In the second part, it just happens in two phases. One is, a journey in the forest, and then, in one guest house how the journey or the life of the people is going to be influenced by the people sitting inside this guest house and discussing it. (sic)" Chiming in Gautham Menon says, "Sneak peek." Rajiv Menon too joined in saying, "Sneak peek. You've got a sneak peek." Vetri Maaran continued, "So, that happens under his (Rajiv Menon) leadership."
Talking about his portions with Rajiv Menon, GVM stated, "We have some really nice (scenes together). That's also a pressure for me. On one side, you have Vijay Sethupathi. He remembers all his dialogues. They're interesting dialogues and all are not easy. On the other hand, I've trained under sir and I've learned my craft under him. I know what an actor he is. Maybe he says first day he felt... He will teach dance to Prabhu Deva. I lost all my inhibitions and I shed my introvertness because of him."
Gautham Menon continued, "I used to wonder how is he able to do this. He will say, 'Hey Prabhu, not like that. Dance like this.' So, I realized, if you have to get what you want from out of your mind to finally on that frame, you have to be there. He was so good right from day one. I was actually sitting behind the monitor. Vetri said just come and be here. And, I saw how... So, it was tense for me to actually act with him and there also he was firing me." Veti Maaran added, "This is like a Déjà vu moment." GVM then said, "Takes me back to 1995." Rajiv Menon then chipped in and said, "I'm not firing him. I mean, my character was firing him."
Watch Vetri Maaran, Gautham Menon, and Rajiv Menon talk about Viduthalai: Parts 1 and 2 in the video below:
