Murugadoss Interview

Filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss, who enjoys a high success rate among his contemporaries in Indian cinema, says he always thinks from the viewpoint of the audience while helming a project.

“I don’t make films as a director. I become the viewer and make it the way the audience would like to see my films. I don’t possess any secret formula for my success. It’s very simple; I make films that everybody would like to see,” Murugadoss, who has hits such as “Thuppakki”, “Ghajini” and “Kaththi” to his credit, told IANS.

Hot on the heels of the success of Sonakshi Sinha-starrer “Akira”, he says he follows the same approach in Bollywood too.

“I don’t have a different approach when I’m working in Bollywood. It’s only when you’re working on a rural subject that you need to worry about your audience. Otherwise, all city-based scripts will work across industries because the sensibilities are more or less same across cities,” he said.

Murugadoss is currently working on a yet-untitled Tamil-Telugu bilingual project with superstar Mahesh Babu.

Keen on exploring both the industries going forward, he said: “We’re making this film as a bonafide bilingual. Each scene is being shot twice, in two languages, and the artists are dubbing in their own voices. Mahesh will be dubbing in his voice for the Tamil version.”

This is his second Telugu directorial, with the first one being Chiranjeevi-starrer “Stalin”, which released in 2006.

“I’m returning to Telugu industry after nine long years. I want to concentrate on making more bilinguals and maybe produce a few Telugu films too,” he said.

There were reports that his project with Mahesh is his career’s most expensive film.

“It’s tough to say if it’s going to be the most expensive film because we’ve just started shooting. I can tell you ‘Akira’ was the least expensive film. It’s ideally the script that decides the budget of the film. As a filmmaker, I only think about delivering a good film,” he added.

Having collaborated with Mahesh Babu for the first time, he said that they were supposed to team up much earlier.

“I’m glad Mahesh and I are finally working together. I’ve always admired him and have been in awe of his screen presence. Audiences will see him a very different avatar this time,” he said.

Also starring Rakul Preet Singh and S.J. Suryah, the film is being bankrolled by Tagore Madhu and N.V. Prasad.