Shakti Soundarrajan, who has got many firsts to his credit like Zombie, the first in the genre in Tamil and TikTikTik, the first space thriller, shares the experiences the unit had while shooting for his upcoming Arya-Sayyeshaa starrer Teddy, an action thriller, at Azerbaijan.
Since Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union earlier, Indian films were extremely popular there. They are especially fond of black and white Hindi movies. They somehow came to know that Sayyeshaa is the grandniece of Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu, and thronged the place to have a glimpse of her, as they were all fans of Dilip Kumarji. They kept repeating the name ‘Dilip Kumar’ during the shoot. It was heart-warming for Sayyeshaa.”
People there also watch Tamil films dubbed in Hindi, says Shakti. “We shot in a slum area in Azerbaijan and an old lady even recognised Arya as she had watched one of his films Madaras apattinam. She even brought the DVD the next day to make sure it was indeed Arya in person.”
The first look of Teddy, where Arya in an intense pose with a teddybear was unveiled on Tuesday, and has been the talk of the town.
Ask Shakti the secret behind the name Teddy, and he says, “There's a crucial link between Arya and a teddy bear in the flick. The animated Teddy character travels throughout the film with Arya and we have created it with computer graphics. The Teddy dances, cries, fights and does all kinds of things. Though we have completed the shoot, we need about three months to do quality CG work.” Bankrolled by Gnanavelraja, the film has music by Imman.
