Merry Christmas maker Sriram Raghavan reveals film has a Pinocchio connection: When he tells lies...

Merry Christmas is all set to hit the big screen on January 12. The Katrina Kaif-Vijay Sethupathi starrer is set in the early 80s and narrates the incidents that unfold in one night. In a new interview, film’s director Sriram Raghavan shares the similarity of the movie’s theme with the classic story of Pinocchio. 

Sriram Raghavan says the audience can hear Pinocchio soundtrack in Merry Chirtsmas 

Sriram Raghavan is known as the master of the thriller genre in India. The Andhadhun (2016) fame returns to director with Merry Christmas and hopes the audiences engage with the story that unfolds within a span of one night. The trailer of Merry Christmas shows the two central characters walking past a theatre showing the children's classic Pinocchio, about the titular wooden puppet whose nose grows longer when he lies.

"We have not specified the time but it is set in the early '80s. Pinocchio has many movie versions so we decided to design our own version of the Pinocchio poster. We haven't shown the movie on screen, you will only hear the soundtrack. So, thematically it's very much like our film because it is about deception. When Pinocchio tells lies, his nose gets longer," Raghavan told PTI in an interview.

Sriram Raghavan says one-night stories should be a genre in itself

Raghavan said one of his earliest memories is watching Yash Chopra's 1969 thriller Ittefaq, starring Rajesh Khanna and Nanda, which was also set in the course of a night. "I think one-night stories are a genre in themselves because there can be all kinds of stories. I remember seeing Yash Chopra's 'Ittefaq' and I was completely blown away by that movie and performances. Even Die Hard (the 1988 Hollywood hit featuring Bruce Willis) was a one-night and a Christmas story.

"I like the sub-genre of one-night stories because it's tough to hold the attention of the audience. It's exciting to think how you are going to compress time and space and make the story work," he added. Merry Christmas, according to the filmmaker, is an intimate story of two mysterious strangers.

(With inputs from PTI)