My entire cast came shot ready to the sets: Krishna on GD Naidu

CHENNAI: Race cars and supercars zoom past on Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Director Krishna waits for them to complete the lap but there was a visible excitement on his face as he is set to talk to us about his film G.D.N. “Of course I am excited. But I am also slightly nervous. It is a huge film with a casting coup of sorts made on a magnanimous person. So, there are some butterflies in the stomach amid all the excitement,” he begins.

Of course, Krishna in his second directorial has successfully handled the likes of Madhavan, Sathyaraj, Priyamani, Jayaram, Thambi Ramaiah, Dushara Vijayan and Kaniha with whom he has travelled all the way since their Five Star days. “The sets were not only buzzing and organic with these actors.

They all came well prepared with their scenes. It helped me in focusing on the artwork from the specific period to the prosthetics that the actors sported for their looks,” explains the filmmaker.

There has always been a misconception among the audience that a biopic will do away with the commercial aspects to maintain authenticity.

However, Krishna disagrees and adds, “That isn’t the case with GD Naidu. He carried a larger-than-life persona throughout his life and was a man on many missions. So, the film comes with a commercial aspect by default.”

Despite these, Krishna admits that there were quite a few challenges he had to wade through while filming G.D.N. “To recreate the era was a challenge. Also, to understand GD Naidu as a person was another huge challenge. When you make a biopic, we can talk only about a certain period, which will raise questions among the audience. So, we had to balance everything out in providing a film that will be appreciated by everyone.”

We told him about Madhavan telling us how GDN is his first collaboration with Krishna and we had to remind the actor about Aayutha Ezhuthu.

We also told Krishna about how there were role reversals this time with Maddy at the receiving end. “He is such a sweet person to work with. Madhavan sir had to sit on the sets for hours with prosthetics and even the slightest of scratching on his head would damage the makeup. Despite that he has delivered his best not only with his performance but with important suggestions on sets,” concludes Krishna.