Siddharth undergone complete makeover for EO

Siddharth
Directing a remake, which has made waves is no small task. But debut director Prasad Ramar was extremely excited when the opportunity to direct the remake of the Kannada hit Lucia came his way.
Touted as one of the rare experimental films in Kannada, with the added distinction of being the first crowd funded film there, Lucia has now been remade as Ennakul Oruvan (EO).

Produced by C V Kumar, the film has Siddharth and Deepa Sannidhi in the lead. The film is about a village lad who comes to the city and works as a projector boy in a theatre. He starts living in an another emotional world, imagining himself as a different character. So what was the challenge in making such a film? "We have taken only the original story, and I wrote a new script," says Prasad, a childhood buddy of Karthik Subbaraj and co-director of Pizza. "I had a fantastic team when I worked in Pizza. With Santosh Narayanan for music, cameraman Gopi Amarnath, editor Leo John Paul and a hands-on producer like CV Kumar who fully believed in me, work was a pleasure, not pressure," says Prasad, who is from Madurai and worked in the HR Industry in Chennai, before entering films. "I worked with Karthik Subbaraj during his Naalaya Iyakunar days and later in Pizza, which is when CV Kumar spotted me," he says.

From the look at the teaser, it's clear that Siddharth has undergone a complete makeover. Prasad agrees, "Siddharth wanted to shed his star tag for EO. His contribution to the look has been immense. He himself came into the project as he wanted to produce. So, we never had to explain anything to him. He darkened his skin tone, wore ill-fitting, baggy clothes, got a close crop and adopted a typical small town boy body language. He has lived the character of Vignesh."

So, have any changes been made from the original directed by Pavan Kumar? Prasad says, "Lucia had many layers and a local Kannada flavour, which we have done away with. We have retained the simple human emotion that the audience can relate to. That forms the crux of the story."

In a film about dreams merging with reality, the editing plays a crucial part. Prasad is happy that Leo John Paul has lived up to the challenge of showcasing the two parallel worlds, simultaneously. After another month of post-production work, the film will be ready for release. The audio launch of the film was graced by actors Samantha, Khushboo and Vijay Sethupathi, apart from the Lucia director Pavan Kumar and director of photography Siddhartha Nuni.

Comments

Most Recent