Savitri’s was a great story waiting to be told, say ‘Mahanati’ producers

Ashwini Dutt’s daughters, producers Swapna and Priyanka, are looking forward to the release of their bilingual project Mahanati (Nadigaiyar Thilagam in Tamil), on May 9. At their office in Prashasan Nagar, Jubilee Hills, the team looks drained but super confident about the film’s outcome.

The film is directed by Priyanka’s husband Nag Ashwin, who impressed the audience with his first film Yevade Subramanyam. When that released, he had expressed a desire to make a biopic on Savitri. She recalls asking him, ‘This is only your second film, are you sure you want to do it?’ He said he was.

Leading from the front Swapna and Priyanka Dutt  

Backed by research

When Swapna heard this, she felt a surge of excitement despite knowing that the road ahead wouldn’t be easy. A biopic on South India’s first female super star meant a great deal of research, apart from getting approval from the actor’s family. The young producers plunged into the job and have enjoyed each minute ever since.

Speaking about the challenges, Swapna says, “We are huge fans of Savitri and each one of us grew up watching her films. It was a great story to be told. The challenges begin only when you get into the details. We needed to find someone who can at least be 50% of Savitri. No one can match her. We wanted to meet Savitri’s daughter Vijaya Chamundeshwari. She was reluctant at first and when she was convinced about what we were going to deliver, she said yes.”

Then Swapna and Priyanka’s parents stepped in. Their mother gave them a book, the father put them in touch with director-producer Katragadda Murari who in turn set up a meeting with Savitri’s daughter in Chennai and also gave the team inputs on how director KV Reddy (Maya Bazaar) dressed, spoke etc. “Making the movie was like going to a temple; we worshipped Savitri” says Swapna.

We ask Priyanka if they met Savitri’s colleagues and her biographers. She says they got in touch with several people connected to Savitri. Nag Ashwin reportedly met them all, pored over every book possible. How honest is the biopic? Priyanka avers, “We met so many people who worked with her and they gave us genuine information. We are showing the rise and fall of a superstar. We spent a year meeting people who were a part of her life. We didn’t compel those who didn’t want to talk. We spent exactly one year of pre-production work and one year on research. Many Tamil writers who worked with her and had written about her were consulted. We took inputs from make up artistes who worked with her..”

The siblings brush away the issue paying royalty to Savitri’s daughter; they state that as a daughter she was only keen to have her mother’s life on screen.

Are they ready to face brickbats as the actor has zillion fans and any creative liberty could lead to angry outbursts? Will the film be a tribute that only showcases Savitri’s glorious days, or will it broach into the actor’s crushes and talk about whether she faced the casting couch which was rampant even in those days? How much of the filmi ambience will be a part of the story? To all these questions, Swapna and Priyanka are guarded in their words, “The film is not only for the current generation, it is for everyone. We can’t stop people from talking negatively and there is little we can do about a prejudiced mindset. If you want to see Savitri’s life all over again then this will be a beautiful film. Casting couch? It is irrelevant to the story. She never went through such stuff.”

The only challenge they faced was casting. They took six to eight months to find Savitri, someone who looked close to her personality, had an element of freshness and could perform. Keerthy Suresh fit the bill.

The personal side

Dulquer Salman agreed to come on board once he heard the story. To a question of how Gemini Ganesan’s character would be portrayed, the sisters maintain, “We will be revealing the whole story if we give you a hint. There is so much that can be learnt from the last few years of Savitri’s life. We have also recreated segments of iconic films like Maya Bazaar and Devdas.”

Priyanka adds, “There is an unbelievable humane side to Savitri. Mohan Babu told us that when she was in the last stage of her career, she was doing Dasari Narayana Rao’s film. His birthday celebration was on at the sets and when she got to know about it from Mohan Babu, she immediately removed a gold chain and put it around Dasari’s neck. She was that spontaneous and generous.”

Ask Swapna about her next project and she is baffled, “What? We will be brain dead for a while now. The director is blessed with a son and I joke looking at the working stills that he has grown up so much. I say... Nagi, your son was born and has now begun talking, you have taken so long to make the film.”