The official invite of Thozha press meet said it would start at 9 A.M. But it isn’t hard for a seasoned event attendee to guess that it is going to start late. Finally, the event began at 10:30 A.M. The team, thankfully, did not play the trailers and teasers of the film on loop. They quickly got to the point, and started talking about the film.Here are some of the highlights from the speeches :
- Actor Vivek said he had been an ardent admirer of Nagarjuna for almost the past 30 years, and that the latter being a part of the movie was one of the main reasons why he accepted to do this small, yet important role.
- Also, Vivek took a few jibes at the director, “Look at director Vamshi. He is a bundle. I mean, a ‘bundle of positivity’. He remarked that Vamshi was gutsy for choosing Nagarjuna, a superstar in Tollywood, to act as a paraplegic.
- Actor Karthi reminisced about the times when Vivek used to visit their home. Apparently, Karthi and Suriya, many a time, had to help him start his faulty TVS-50 scooter, by pushing it.
- Director Vamshi said the film’s dialogue writer Raju Murugan was the one who set the mood of the film. The director thanked him for helping out a non-Tamil like himself.
Our personal favourite part of the meet was actor Nagarjuna addressing the press and interacting with them. It made the long wait worthwhile. Charm is his middle name and he oozed of it, while answering all the questions posed to him with a smile and a certain geniality. Here are some highlights from his speech and the Q&A :
- “Thozha‘s story has a soul to it. The film cannot be termed as a remake of The Intouchables. That movie was inspired from a real aristocrat and his ex-con caretaker. We have made various changes to the script, and therefore it is a brand new film. This film is life changing” he said.
- “I remember watching this film 4 years ago with my wife, Amala. I had told her that if someone made this film here, I wanted to do this particular role. Many years later, Vamshi approaches me with a story, almost prepared to hear me say ‘No’ to it. He insisted I watch the film first, and handed me a DVD. All I did was look at the cover, and say Yes!”
- “I’m waiting for the day I show Thozha to my wife and sons. When I told them that I was doing this film, they said, “Nanna, we cannot see you play a physically challenged person‘.
- When asked why he wasn’t doing many Tamil films, he said, “For me, Tamil is a very special language. The film that introduced me here was the one that changed my life. Idaiyathai Thirudathey (Gitanjali in Telugu) by Mani Ratnam was a class apart from the films I had been doing those days. Until then, I was doing utter nonsense. If a director said I had to wear lipstick, I would. If they said I couldn’t wear jeans, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t even sport a stubble. But Mani Ratnam told me that for my part in Idaiyathai Thirudathey, I would have to sport a beard, wear jeans and Nike shoes. That was what the youth was waiting for. The same with Udhayam (Shiva in Telugu). Later, Ratchagan came my way. The only reason I chose to do that film AR Rahman, and boy, he gave great songs for the movie. But I think the only thing people remember about the film are my nerves” he laughed, referring to the infamous scenes in the film where his nerves, well pop out each time he gets angry. “Payanam too was an unheard genre. So yes, my Tamil films have been very special, and I will maintain that so as to retain my image here.” he said
- When asked why he doesn’t speak in Tamil even though he knows the language, he said, “If I were speaking in Telugu, I would have been more emotional and expressive. If I speak in Tamil, I will be fumbling and searching for the right words, and looking to Karthi to make sure my grammar is right, and I do not want to do that. But I have dubbed for myself in the film’s Tamil version, at Karthi’s persuasion. So I think I am making up for this” he said.
