2 weeks Ago By Sreejith Mullapilly
Actors Krishna Kulasekaran and Kani Thiru star in the new Disney+ Hotstar series . Krishna portrays a complex police officer, balancing empathy for missing children with a cop’s assertive stance against their judgmental father (Kishore). Talking about what drew him to the role, Krishna says, “It is a multi-layered character, and I like the fact that it shows the human side of a cop.
He has been married for eight years but has no children. That pain comes out of him when he learns about the missing children. He is a crime inspector but gets demoted to traffic police, which hurts him.
It is a combination of all these factors that make his journey interesting.” On the other hand, Kani plays the mother of the missing children, an emotionally demanding role. However, the actor says that she did not find it difficult thanks to the detailed screenplay and director Sridhar’s vision.
“I read the screenplay, and my director explained to me how my character would behave in such a situation.” Elaborating on her character, Kani says, “No mother would lose hope when her children go missing. However, she would also be extremely anxious.
” What also helped Kani portray her role was the fact that she is a mother in real life. On an intriguing aspect of Kani’s character, Krishna says, “Usually, one parent is strict while the other is lenient in every home. If both are strict, kids would run away.
In this series, the mother feels a sense of guilt thinking that she has been lenient with her children, while the father remains a disciplinarian.” Adding to Krishna’s point, Kani says, “Society often unfairly blames mothers, regardless of their children’s actions.” Kani reveals that playing the character felt cathartic in some ways.
She says, “Although those emotions are relevant to the character, I did not know they exist within me. For example, there is a sequence where I burst out in anger at my husband, Kishore sir’s character.” Krishna notes that Kani’s three-page monologue brought out a nervous side of her.
Besides taking on a prominent role in , Krishna also served as its producer. It is his debut production in Tamil, but the actor says that he could manage these two different roles with ease, thanks to his production team. “We have an excellent team, with Madhan to head the production.
There were moments when I felt like there was a lack of activity on set (laughs) and I was tensed about whether production was getting late because of me. But Madhan ensured that I was not overwhelmed with such thoughts.” Having been a producer since 2018, Krishna knows a thing or two about pitching a project to a distributor and convincing them.
He says the process has changed over the years. “Back in 2018, we would only pitch the story. Then, if they commission the project, we would develop the screenplay, story beats, and dialogues, and there could be multiple iterations.
After all the changes, it was a task for the creative team of my production house to come to an agreement with the platform. A bound script would be made and shooting would start only after that,” says Krishna citing the time it took for his series Jhansi (2022) to go from conception to production. He goes on to add, “However, today, we pitch a project with its story, beats, and screenplay without dialogues.
Because OTT platforms cannot wait that long. They do not want to spend more than six months in the writing stage, which I think is fair enough.” Krishna says that he could have got the inspiration to become a producer from his late father Kulasekaran.
“When my father produced or my brother directed films, I would not interfere. Likewise, when I acted, they would not give any suggestions. But at the back of my head, I always thought about my father’s production and I observed some of his work.
So the inspiration could be from my father,” says Krishna. He adds, “When there was criticism for my work, my father always encouraged me to do what I felt was right.” Speaking of criticism, a candid Krishna puts his failures from 2016 to 2018 down to the “stress” he faced after he was “handed over a huge debt.
” He says, “I missed out on many films because of that. Whatever films I did, I was hopeful of their success. I had certain compulsions, and while there were some films that worked, others turned out to be mediocre.
” However, the actor seems to have learnt a crucial lesson from all the failures. “I treat success and failure equally. My third film was a blockbuster, but I could not celebrate it because my first and second films did not work well.
” Krishna further reveals, “This is why I did not give interviews when Kazhugu (2012) became a hit or Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014) became a blockbuster.” On his biggest learning through the years of failures, Krishna says, “Do not get too excited for successes because they show you how it would be to fall.”.
