From print to screen

After making his debut with the gangster thriller Burma in 2014, and following it up with the horror-comedy Jackson Durai (2016), director Dharanidharan returned last week with his new film Raja Ranguski, a police investigative thriller. About tackling varied genres in his films, the director says, “It was a conscious decision. My wish is to make every film of mine in a different genre.”

Raja Ranguski is a film about a beat cop, and the filmmaker admits that the idea originated from a news article he read in a Tamil daily. “The news first came in the eighth page of a newspaper. As days progressed, it went from the middle sheets to the front page. This story then became a proper screenplay,” says Dharanidharan, who adds that it isn’t a typical cop story with action sequences.

The director further reveals that he wanted someone who was a film or two old to play the lead. He zeroed in on Shirish, who made his debut with the 2016-film Metro. “I wanted someone who could play a very normal and ordinary constable role and Shirish fit the bill,” he says.

While confirming the actor to play the male protagonist was a smooth process, it wasn’t as easy casting the female lead. Scheduling conflicts forced the actor who was originally meant to play Ranguski to drop off the project. “Since she couldn’t allot dates due to her previous commitments, we had to choose another actor. Chandini Tamilarasan readily accepted the role after hearing the script,” shares the director.

The bumpy ride to the theatres continued with release date issues thanks to the big-ticket film Saamy Square joining the race in the last minute. “Big films will have a good reception whenever they release. So it would be nice if they can plan in advance and either come in the first week of a month or the last, and let smaller films have some breathing space,” says Dharanidharan.

While the film might be ‘small’, the presence of Yuvan Shankar Raja added much weight to Raja Ranguski. “When I approached Yuvan, I was happy that he even agreed to listen to the script. I was pleasantly surprised with the budget he quoted,” shares the director, who feels the composer has done a great job with both the songs and the background score.