‘I don’t treat Naga Chaitanya like a star kid’

One of the Tamil film industry’s acclaimed directors, Gautam Vasudev Menon, will soon make a major switch in his career.
Gautam’s all set to enter Tollywood and is directing none other than Nagarjuna Jr, Naga Chaitanya. “I’ve always admired Nagarjuna, especially after Udayam (Shiva). And he likes my work, too. Nagarjuna even told me that if an interesting script comes up, he’d like his son to work with me,” explains Gautam.

The star son, he says, is just like his father. “We’ve just shot a couple of portions, but I can see the similarities. Not only does Naga Chaitanya look like his father, but also shows the same commitment to his work,” observes Gautam.

After having worked with established stars like Kamal Haasan and Suriya, how’s it to work with a newbie, and a star kid at that? “It’s not like I’m sitting on the edge of my seat because he’s a star kid. The effort on my part is the same as I’d put in when I work with Kamal sir or Suriya,” says Gautam.

The film, Naga Chaitanya’s second after his debut Josh, will be a remake of Gautam’s under-production Tamil flick, Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya. “It’s a feel-good love story and even though it doesn’t have the intensity of my previous films, it has its moments,” he says. Up next is another film with T-town superstar, Mahesh Babu. “His sister Manjula is producing it and it’ll be an action film with minimal dialogue,” he says.

The director has also teamed up with Oscar-winner AR Rahman to compose music for Vinnaithandi... and the Naga-starrer, after his spat with Harris Jayaraj. Does he miss working with Harris since he’s scored so many musical hits with him? “We still share a good equation. Harris was upset when I signed Rahman, but a director has to work with different people to keep his creativity alive. It’s not like Harris only works with me. If something comes up, I may work with him,” he says. Is Rahman affordable for film-makers like him after the Oscars? “He’s doing the film for the same fee we agreed on before he won the Oscars. Even if he charges a particular number, he deserves it,” says Gautam.


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