“Kennedy Club has nothing to do with Vijay's Bigil, except both are emotional sports stories. While Kennedy Club is about women's kabaddi, Bigil is on women's football. We did not get any pressure from their team,” national award winning filmmaker Susienthiran clarifies as he talks about his film to DC. His film is based on real life incidents and has several women kabaddi champs playing the lead roles while Bharathiraja and Sasikumar essay crucial real life characters.
Revealing how he ventured into yet another kabaddi film, Susee said, “Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu was based on my dad's real life experiences. The movie was a huge hit. My dad is also adviser to women's kabaddi teams for the past 15 years. The team members stayed together in one place for the last 7 years and practised and played the game. No one has a mobile with her. The team members can communicate with their parents only through the phone the coach has. They worked hard and won several tournaments. Appa used to discuss their struggles, pains, camaraderie, passion for the sport etc. And an incident that took place in 2017, which he shared with me inspired me to come out with KC.”
On the title he says, “Those days India had several admirers for John F Kennedy and many sports associations had his name. So, here when we wanted to show that a club functions for the last 50 years, the title was aptly chosen.”
Tell us about Bharathiraja's performance. “While he was acting in my Pandiya Naadu, he was not very happy with the character. He felt it has less dialogue. In Kennedy Club, he essays my dad Nallusamy. He trusted me fully and gave his 200 percent. He was very punctual for the shoot. I hope that at he would get an award for this film.”
On Sasikumar who plays the coach, he says, “He essays Selvam, who is the present coach of a women's kabaddi team. He has proved his versatility.”
While debutant Meenatchi who plays the heroine, about 60 women kabaddi players from Tamil Nadu, 20 from Kerala and 60 from North have performed in the film. Imman has scored the music for KC, which is set to hit the marquee on August 22.
