Sriram Raghavan says he will never make a bi-lingual film like Merry Christmas again: Bahut torture…

Sriram Raghavan is gearing up for the release of Merry Christmas. The movie is headlined by Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi. The film marks the maiden Tamil venture of the director and also the Tollywood debut of Katrina Kaif. During a press meeting, ahead of the film’s release, the filmmaker opened up about the challenges of shooting a movie in two languages simultaneously and why he would never take on such a project again. 

Sriram Raghavan says he always wanted to make a Tamil film 

On January 4, the cast and crew of Merry Christmas came together for a press meet before the release of the movie. While interacting with the media the director Sriram Raghavan shared why he decided to make the film in two languages. As quoted by Bollywood Hungama the filmmaker revealed, “I am a Tamilian and it was always a dream to make a film in Tamil. I also wish to make a Marathi film, since I have lived in Mumbai for so long. This film gave me that opportunity. Because Vijay is an actor from down South, I felt that it would be interesting to try (making a Tamil version).” 

However, Sriram also listed the challenges that went into making the same film twice. He confessed, “But I’ll not make a bi-lingual action kyunki bahut torture ho jaata hai hum logon ke liye.” Reasoning the same he said, “We would shoot a scene in Hindi. 10 days later, we would shoot it again, in Tamil. That time, we start thinking, ‘Kuch alag karte hai? Ya wohi karte hai? Camera angle and lighting change kar de?’. These things are not so much fun. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself as I wanted to make a Tamil film.” 

Sriram Raghavan reveals if he adopted ‘copy-paste’ methods on making two films

At the same event, the director clarified that even though the story of the films remained the same in both versions, the approach towards making them was different. He clarified, “How can it be copy-paste? The language in Tamil is a different idiom actually. The character actors are different. Vinay Pathak plays a role in the Hindi version which is played by Raadhika Sarathkumar in the Tamil film. Yes, the story is the same but zyada kuch bolunga nahin. People think there is a different ending in Hindi and Tamil version. Logon ko sochne do. Dono films dekho!” 

Katrina Kaif, Vijay Sethupathi's upcoming film Merry Christmas is all set to release on January 12. The film is shot in two languages, with different supporting actors. The Hindi version co-stars Sanjay Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Pratima Kannan, and Tinnu Anand, while the Tamil version has Radhika Sarathkumar, Shanmugaraja, Kevin Jay Babu, and Rajesh Williams in the same roles. The film also introduces Pari, a child actor. 

(With inputs from IANS)