Chennai, Feb 15 (IANS) Director A. Gokul Krishna, who is awaiting the release of his directorial debut “Aaha Kalyanam”, the southern remake of “Band Baaja Baaraat”, says working with a prestigious studio like Yash Raj Films (YRF) is a great responsibility he had to bear as a newcomer.
“There was a huge responsibility on me while working on the remake. More than nervousness or the challenging part to work with such a big studio, I felt the responsibility to live up to the expectations and the standards of the studio. Working with YRF made me responsible,” Krishna told IANS.
“Aaha Kalyanam”, which releases Feb 21, features Nani and Vaani Kapoor in the lead.
The director, who initially wanted to cast fresh faces, zeroed in on Nani and Vaani as they possessed a “unique” energy which was apt for the film.
Nani reprises the role of Ranveer Singh from the original.
“We auditioned a lot of new faces but I wasn’t happy with any of them. I had watched Nani’s ‘Ala Modalaindi’ and liked the freshness in it. Nani played his character with a unique charm and I thought that was apt for his role in my film,” he said.
Vaani, known for her impressive debut in “Shuddh Desi Romance”, is stepping into the shoes of Anushka Sharma from the original. She plays a wedding planner in the film.
“When we started our film, ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ hadn’t released and I didn’t know about Vaani. But when I auditioned her, she brought forth a unique energy that was synonymous to her character. Since wedding planning is not a fad in southern India, she had to work hard to do justice to the role,” said Krishna.
He says “Aaha Kalyanam” is made without tampering the soul of the original.
“When I watched ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’, it gave me a high. While working on the remake, I ensured that the soul of the original is not lost. The biggest challenge was to make the film akin to the nativity of our audience with its local flavour,” he added.
How did you land an opportunity to work with YRF?
“I was working on my own film but then I happened to meet someone from the south wing of YRF. We discussed the idea to remake ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’. I pitched the idea and got to work on the film,” said Krishna, who didn’t rewrite the script for the Tamil version.
“We stuck to the script of the original and made small changes to it,” he said and added that the remake will be high on cross-cultural values.
“In one song, 23 different cultures have been captured. We have emphasized on the cross-cultural values through most of the film. For instance, the film is shot using a red, blue and yellow colour palette,” he said.
“The red is the kumkum used in weddings while the blue is colour of saris women wear during these occasions and yellow happens to be the colour of the ‘mangalyam’. We have not shown all this evidently but all the colors have been blended in a different way into the narrative”, added Gokul.
The film will have a simultaneous release in Telugu as well with the same title.