Agent Kannayiram Promotions: Manoj Didn't Want Me To Act In The Film, Says Santhanam

Santhanam has starred in Agent Kannayiram, a remake of the Telugu film Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya. The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on November 25. During a promotional press meet, Santhanam spoke about how Manoj didn't want Santhanam to act in Agent Kannayiram.

He started off by saying how people expect only comedy in his films. He said "People have gotten used to expecting humour alone from my films. Even director Rathnakumar was telling me about that. For Agent Kannayiram, they have changed me completely. When I say changed me, I mean that they asked me not to do comedy at all. The film has humour though. The thing is, you might have seen in the trailer, there is a shot where Pugazh says 'Looks like someone has peed here just now. It's warm.' And I so badly wanted to say something there. I asked Manoj, the director but he said 'no, no please stay in your mood. Let's not get your character distracted."

Santhanam continued, "Manoj's making is a bit different. He shoots our rehearsals and reading sessions. He would sometimes skip the shots where we act. If we ask him, he would say, 'but you have acted in the scene. I don't want you to act.' Sometimes he would ask you to write something. And we would be relaxed as it's only a hand shot. But then he would go ahead and shoot the reactions in our faces. It was a different experience working with him."

He went on to talk about how difficult it is to pull off a remake in this day and age. "Back in the days, people who didn't know the language would not have watched a film. So, when remaking a certain movie in Tamil, it would be relatively easier as most of the crowd would be fresh crowd. Now with a nationalized market, we get dubbed versions very early for most films. When they have already seen the Telugu version either in Telugu or Tamil, it's a bit of a challenge to entice the crowd. Manoj has done a great job, and this would be engaging irrespective of whether you have seen the original."