Ranam 2 would have been late actress Aarti Agarwal’s comeback film. The director and hero of the movie, Amma Rajasekar, talks about his bond with Aarti, how he made changes to the script and added another song on her request and more.
“Aarti’s death came as a shock to many, including me. I was the choreographer of her first movie, Nuvvu Naaku Nacchavu, and I had also worked with her in her last movie. We had started our journey together. She later became one of the hit actresses and I, too, became a familiar name,” he says.
“In Ranam 2, Aarti played the second lead. I had always wanted to work with her. But if she had maintained her body, I would have probably cast her as the main lead. She had put on a lot of weight after her last accident, and I guess that bothered her to an extent,” he says.
“Because of Aarti, I made several changes to the script — I made her character lengthy and also added an extra song because she requested for it. Though I later decided to remove the song because of the length, we added it back for her fans after the news of her demise,” he adds.
“Aarti never showed any signs of depression while we were shooting for the movie over six months back. But she desperately wanted to make a comeback. She once came to me and said ‘Rajasekar, give me one hit movie and I will prove it to them. I want to be the No. 1 actress again.’ She always had the zeal and fire to make it big once more. The only problem was that she wasn’t getting any good offers.”
Rajasekar adds, “She was my good friend. You would never see her angry. She was always cheerful and tried to cheer people around her.”
Talking about her role in Ranam 2, Rajasekhar adds, “She plays the head of a dance troop. She likes me since her childhood days. We have a fight and she leaves me. Without revealing much I can say that she plays an important character in the movie. Aarti was waiting for a hit, and was sure to achieve it with Ranam 2. It’s so disappointing that she isn’t alive to enjoy the success of the movie.”
“The movie had released in 18 theatres, but after the news of her demise, six more theatres have started screening the movie,” informs Rajasekar.
Rajasekhar is also planning to organise a memorial for Aarti at Sandhya Theatre in the city where her fans will be invited. And for fans who can’t make it to the theatre to watch the movie, it will be uploaded on YouTube after two months. The movie is also slated to release in Tamil later this month.
