'Agent Kannayiram would trigger imp questions in the audience’s mind’

CHENNAI: It is usually quite easy to interview a few movie teams as actors adhere strictly to speaking only about their film that is releasing in a few days. With Agent Kannaiyiram it’s quite different as Pugazh keeps countering our questions. The movie marks Manoj Beedha’s second directorial after Vanjagar Ulagam and Riya Suman, who is already a favourite among the Tamil audience. “I had the remake rights of the film and Santhanam expressed his interest to reprise Naveen Polishetty’s role from Agent Athreya. He hasn’t played a detective before and after Vanjagar Ulagam I wanted to do a film that has some comedy and other varied emotions in it. So, things fell into place,” begins Manoj.

Talking about having directed an offbeat film like Vanjagar Ulagam to moving on to directing Santhanam, Manoj says, “Santhanam fits into my template with Agent Kannaiyiram is what I believe, When I say that it is not easy to break a pattern of someone in his calibre as he has registered himself among people with his style of humour. Meanwhile, he has incorporated his elements as well in some places that have worked well for the story.”

Pugazh is one of the most-sought after actors in Tamil cinema and he straight away says, “I should attribute this fame to the Cook with Comali show. Else, people wouldn’t have been familiar with me. I have been in makeovers of a woman in some reality shows and have done some mimicries.” He instantly switches his voice to Nadigavel MR Radha from Rathakaneer as we all watch him in awe. He then continues, “During the lockdown, people repeatedly watched CwC on OTT platforms and that is when my name started doing the rounds in the movie industry too. I used to get calls from popular directors and I thought they were all prank calls,” he laughs.

Pugazh adds that he plays a wannabe detective in Agent Kannaiyiram. “This is a film for which I have allocated a maximum number of days. I shot for almost a month alongside Santhanam and my role is quite big. I play his assistant who learns the nuances of investigations from Kannayiram,” he says. Riya says that it was absolutely fun working with Pugazh. “He is in his zone which I would call fun. And I was in his zone as well after we started working together. He would show me his pictures from other films and we shared a good laugh.” The actress also shares about her role, an Anglo-Indian character. “I play a character called Adhirai Victor, an Anglo Indian. So I had the liberty to speak some of the dialogues in English. Adhirai is a documentary filmmaker, who is quite ambitious. She wants to do a documentary on a specific case and that is how she crosses paths with Santhanam’s character. She is not an eye candy in the film, which is what I liked the most.” she says.

Riya also feels that Agent Kannayiram has the potential to trigger important conversation among the audience upon watching it. “There will be logical thinking in terms of religion and humanity,” the actress tells us. When asked Manoj the challenges of shooting it in a different period, he says. “We hunted for a specific location and we erected sets that don’t resemble modern day. Though we haven’t given a specific timeline to the story, it will still be believable and has gone well with the narration,” the filmmaker concludes.