Many years ago, a young boy with stars in his eyes visited the sets of director Fazil’s Aniyathipravu for an audition, but Fazil found him too young to fit into any role. Vineeth Kumar did not land a role, but he got introduced to Fazil’s son Fahadh Faasil and from there began a deep friendship that has lasted over the years. That friendship has taken a professional turn with Fahadh playing the lead in Vineeth’s directorial debut Ayal Njaanalla, based on the story penned by Ranjith.
Busy with last minute post production work of his film, Vineeth says, “Ranjith has encouraged me a lot and I met him and discussed a lot of scripts after which we zeroed in on this story that Fahadh had already listened to. Fahadh has always been my sounding board for stories which I narrate to him first. We often visit each other’s homes and talk about cinema. I somehow believed that Fahadh would become a director, but I saw him turn into a star. I am blessed to have both these talents in my debut film and it is a fulfillment of a long cherished dream.”
Vineeth is not new to direction since he has directed a couple of ad films but there is an obvious difference in the canvas and scale of an ad film and a feature film.
Vineeth says, “Ad films require just three days, but this film had three schedules and was shot across three cities — Bengaluru, Kochi and Gujarat and took around one and a half years to complete including the pre-production.”
Vineeth enjoyed his maiden stint behind the camera. Talking about directing the actor Fahadh rather than his friend Fahadh, Vineeth says, “I feel that my friendship with Fahadh gave me a distinct advantage. I could communicate with him better and I could translate certain expressions and nuances of Fahadh like his innocent smile that I found unique on to the screen.”
Fahadh, who plays Prakashan, sports two different looks in the film and is a man who migrated to Gujarat and ends up staying there for 15 years. One of Fahadh’s looks has him sporting a wig and that led to a lot of hilarious moments since Fahadh has also gone for makeup free look.
Vineeth elaborates, “There was a shoot in a busy mall and Fahadh was present at the location, but a large number of people were walking about enquiring of his whereabouts. In fact, when he landed up for the shoot on the first day, even my cinematographer Shamdat did not recognise Fahadh and when he did, Shamdat literally did a double take; I wish I had captured that moment!”
The shoot in Gujarat also had some interesting off screen moments. Vineeth recalls, “We had shot in some remote areas which has the Panchayati Raj system. Shamdat and I went to a remote village to shoot some village ambience scenes but we were caught by the locals and our cameras were confiscated and we were locked inside a shed that stores grass and hay. The locals thought that we were out to loot a temple in their village. I explained to the Panchayat president that our camera itself was worth lakhs and that we would certainly not come to steal with such expensive equipment. In whatever Hindi I could manage, I explained that we were film people and guests in his land and that if the situation was reversed, we would have treated him royally in Kerala.”
Ultimately, sense prevailed and they were let off and Vineeth mentions that this was just one of the many incidents. Talking about the metamorphosis from an actor to a director, Vineeth points out, “As an actor we have the luxury of free time after a shoot is canned, but as a director the entire crew is waiting for my directions which is why I did not have the time to think of anything other than cinema. I had a lot of my friends in this film and even when they cracked jokes, what I could do was just smile and get back to my job.” Acting is not something he is willing to give up and says that his ultimate focus is cinema as a whole.
