In recent times, M’town is witnessing a complete freshness in storylines as well as in the technical side of movies. As part of that revolutionary change, the industry has got several new faces, who have made a mark in Mollywood. But there is a set of unsung heroes, behind the month-long-procedures to recruit actors, and they are casting directors.
Though casting directors are common in Hollywood and even in Bollywood, it is very hard to find such a credit in the movies made in M’town. “The normal working style here in Mollywood is that the director or his screenwriter will fix popular actors for almost all roles, while scripting. So that, usually, there is no need to appoint a third person as the casting director. But nowadays, some directors are approaching us for fresh faces as their story demands a change in the usual cast list,” says actor-turned-casting director Dinesh Nair, who started his new career with the Vineeth Sreenivasan directed Thira.
According to Dinesh, casting isn’t an easy job; it needs lot of time as well as dedication. “Normally, if we are doing the complete casting of a movie, it will take a minimum three to four months to complete the procedure. The time will change depending on the number of characters. In the case of Thira, we took around four months to complete the process. As that film was set in various locales and the lion’s share of characters was non-Malayalis, we had to visit all the places mentioned in the script including Chennai, Belgaum, Goa, Bengaluru and Kerala for casting. All the characters, except Shobhana and Dhyan, were recruited through this process,” says Dinesh who has been credited as casting director in around five movies in Malayalam.
The arrival of casting directors in M’town has indirectly helped the theatre artistes to get a smooth entry into the industry. Shiji Nath, who has worked as the casting director in KR Manoj’s recently released film Kanyaka Talkies, says theatre artistes are a better option as they can easily grasp the characters owing to their stage background.
“As the sync sound method was used in the Kanyaka Talkies, the sound modulation of the actor was also very important along with how they exhibit that character. So during the casting stage itself, we had made an extra effort to find out actors, who can manage both duties. Another plus point of casting them is that they are experienced and can easily get into the character instead of actually acting,” says Shiji.
The rapport between the filmmaker and casting director is an essential factor to make the latter’s job more comfortable. According to actor-turned-casting director Vijayakumar, who has worked as casting director in Rajeev Ravi’s second directorial venture Njan Steve Lopez, if the filmmaker is well aware of his characters then the casting director’s duty will become easier.
“There is no need to get a detailed description from the filmmaker, if you have a good relationship with him. You can easily understand his demand from the basic detailing itself. Hence, if the public accepts the artiste, who was recruited for a role through the casting process, that credit should go to the filmmaker, not to the casting director,” says Vijayakumar.
He adds that, “The major hurdle the casting director faces is time. If we have to find actors for around 25 to 50 characters, we have to audition around 1000 to zero in on the actors suitable for the roles. During casting, the major criterion in front of me is that we should give importance to actors who belong to the place, where the film is placed. For example, the majority of the cast of Njan Steve Lopez was recruited from Thiruvananthapuram, as the story deals with incidents in the capital city,” says Vijayakumar, who is also the casting director of the yet- to- be- released Kismath.
Kerala State Cultural Welfare Board Chairman and Film Producers’ Association President G Sureshkumar says that casting directors are very helpful for filmmakers during pre-production. “As the casting directors finalise the cast list, the filmmakers get more time to work on the script and other pre-production. Though the producer has to pay remuneration to one more technician, to be frank, it helps the project as talented people are being recruited to enact the roles,” says Suresh Kumar.
