Chennai, Jan 26
Seeking to silence those who had come down hard on him for opting out of directing the much-awaited film featuring two of Tamil cinema's biggest superstars -- Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, ace director Lokesh Kanakaraj on Monday clarified why he had made the decision to opt out.
Addressing mediapersons, Lokesh Kanakaraj said, "I wish to clarify a few points about the Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan film as I came in for a lot of criticism for it. It was at the time of Coolie's release that I met both (Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan) of them. Both said they wanted to do a film like this."
"For me, it was a big opportunity. I considered it an honour that two legends who were working together after 46 years were asking me to direct that film. But I had (to direct) 'Kaithi 2' at that time. So, I told the production team of 'Kaithi 2' that I wanted to finish this film first as I didn't know if I would get such an opportunity ever again," he explained.
Lokesh then went on to narrate what happened. He said, "I wrote the script for the Rajinikanth- Kamal Haasan film for one-and-a-half months sincerely. I did my best to do a film keeping both legends together. After one-and-a-half months, I met both stars individually and narrated the script to them. Both of them were equally excited about the story."
However, Lokesh said both stars had been doing films from the action genre continuously. "Both stars have continuously been doing action films. In the case of Rajinikanth sir, he has been doing action films right until Jailer 2. In the case of Kamal sir, his upcoming film being directed by Stunt choreographers Anbarivu will be heavy on action. Their thought was 'Should we again go in for an action film, without giving it a break?'. They wanted to do a light-hearted film is what I understood. However, I cannot do light-hearted films. So, I genuinely expressed that to them and walked out of the project," he said.
The director also thanked the media and the masses for the immense support they had given to his film 'Coolie'. "I thank the people for supporting 'Coolie'. It ran for 35 days despite several criticisms. Sun Pictures have told me that it was a profitable film. I thank the media and the public for it. I have taken several lessons from the experience. I will try to implement them in my future films," he said.
- IANS
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