I am keen to direct Rajini sir and it will be the biggest blessing in my life”, remarked Dhanush while speaking about his gangster trilogy film Vada Chennai in Vetri Maaran’s direction. Dhanush says that Vetri Maaran had initially cast Simbu in the lead role of Anbu in Vada Chennai and asked me to portray an important character called Kumar, who appears for half an hour in the film. I openly said ‘I am not that magnanimous and turned it down then’.
“We discussed about the idea of Vada Chennai, when we did Polladhavan in 2003. But the scale of the film was huge and it had a 1,000 page script and we were not really prepared to go with it. We later did Aadukalam and once again the talk about Vada Chennai cropped up, but nothing happened,” reveals Dhanush who teams up with Vetri for the third time.
Much later, the topic of Simbu playing the lead began, but it also got dropped due to certain reasons, Dhanush states, “Once again the ball was in my court and I decided to produce the film. In between, Vetri directed the award winning film Visaarani. All said and done, what started in 2003 has finally landed up to me and I felt I was destined to act in Vada Chennai (laughs).”
On his co-star Aishwarya Rajesh, he says, “Initially, she was offered another role which she did not accept. We approached a few actresses for the role of Padma, but it didn’t work out. We thought why not Aishwarya and called her again. She has done a wonderful job. Hers is a bold character where she has to speak loud with coarse diction, but the way she carried herself in the midst of hundreds of people was amazing. I heard people call her ‘Lady Dhanush’ and I am happy about it.”
Director Ameer’s character Rajan is the core around which VC revolves, the VIP star admits. “I enjoyed the Rajan character more than mine (Anbu). Ameer sir is an extraordinary actor. What started as a small role was extended fully and after a certain stage had Vetri added few more scenes to Ameer, I would have got lost as the hero of VC. (Laughs).”
The content is so vast that it needed to be told in three parts. “We have footage for 20 minutes for the 2nd part of VC. We will soon start shooting for part 2. Also, I and Vetri collaborate for our fourth film which begins shooting in 7 days. We share a great understanding and he has been with me in my ups and downs.”
Reacting to a question if his next directorial venture after Pa Paandi will be with his father-in-law Rajinikanth, he said, “Who would not want to direct sir. I love to direct him. Time and opportunity should come. Let’s see.”
While Andrea plays an intense character, Samudhrakani, Kishore, Daniel Balaji and Pawan are in the cast. Velraj is behind the camera, Santhosh Narayanan has composed the music and Dhanush has crooned a song. The movie is slated for October 17 release.
