Report by Priya Saravana
Kattappava Kaanom held its press meet on Monday in Chennai. Directed by debutant director Mani Seyon, a former associate of Eeram Arivazhagan, the movie has Sibi Sathyaraj and Aishwarya Rajesh in the lead roles. Actors Kaali Venkat, Mime Gopi and Livingston play supporting roles in this comic fantasy. The music is composed by Santhosh Dhayanidhi. And the movie is produced by Windchimes media entertainment.
Sibi Raj plays the role of an IT professional and Aishwarya Rajesh plays an urban girl. A specially trained fish named Kattapa, plays an important role in the movie. Exploring concepts like luck and chance, the movie has an “open-ending”, validating neither option. The director also confirmed that the scenes with the fish were mostly shot live and had minimal Computer Generated (CG) effects.
The director said that the movie will appeal to people of all ages, and actor Sibi called it a very “fresh script”; the movie revolves around a ‘vasthu fish’. He confirmed the movie has entered its post-production stage and the movie is expected to be released in mid-September.
Q&A:
The Q&A session had its characteristic dose of laughter, ambiguous and irrelevant questions and a few sensible ones.
The session started with the most obvious question, “Who is Kattappa? Is it the fish or Sibi Raj?” Sibi Raj deftly deflected the question to the director, who seemed to shy away from all the attention. He hesitantly said he wanted it to be a surprise. Another reporter wanted to know the significance of the title. Sibi Raj, quickly answered that the title was neither a reference to his father’s memorable character of the same name, in Baahubali, nor was it created for sensation. It was the only title that most suited the script. Asked if the director of Baahubali, S Rajamouli was aware of the title, Sibi snidely said that if he had not been aware until then, the press would surely rectify that after that day.
The fact that that Kattappa was a fish was infact revealed during the Q’n’A when a reporter claimed to have read it somewhere. When the director gave in and confirmed the report, another reporter asked, if the plot was about Kattappa going missing. The director was visibly struggling to keep up with the reporters, and before he could answer this, another reporter asked why a missing fish was so important? “Does it have diamonds in its belly?” The director gave the most diplomatic answer to this: he said, the value of anything is what we assign to it.
Following this, a string of questions were thrown at the director and actor: Is the fish male or female? Why is an IT professional in search of a fish? Why did an IT professional buy a fish? Will Kattapa be found? Is the fish in the IT company too? Is it an adaption of Finding Nemo? etc. After answering a few of their questions, Sibi Raj said that he was really glad with the many number of questions the title had generated since it adds to the intrigue of the movie.
After all this, a reporter even remarked that if the director was more responsive, they could have had a longer “chat”. A middle-aged reporter laced his question with a hidden threat, saying lack of details might incite them to give misinformation about the movie. Sibi Raj in a last-minute damage-control pitch convinced the director to give a gist of the movie. The director reiterated that the movie explored the concept of luck and chance and the fish was a tool to drive home their point.
In response to how the fish was used while shooting, the director said that the fish was specially trained to assist them in their shooting. The fish, sensitised to the director’s movements, can be made to swim to a certain spot or remain stationary in a spot. He added that there were times when the fish simply refused to respond to his movements and called it “mischievous”.
The press meet came to an end with a rather prophetic reporter having the final word saying padam oduna luck, illana karvadu – “if the movie becomes a hit, there is luck, if not, there’s only dried-fish.”
