Exclusive! Director Ra Venkat Opens Up About His Upcoming Film Kida Which Got Selected For Indian Panorama 202

Director Ra Venkat's upcoming Tamil feature film Kida got selected for the most prestigious Indian Panorama 2022 at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), where the best of contemporary Indian films are selected for the promotion of film art. Actors Kaali Venkat and Poo Ram did prominent roles in the film. Director Ra Venkat gave an exclusive interview to FilmiBeat. He shared a lot about Kida and his journey in film industry. Let's hear it from him!

Story Line Of Kida

The complete story is set to happen on a Diwali day. Irrespective of financial situation, Diwali is being celebrated as the biggest festival all over India. Right from a family man from a below poverty line trying to surprise his loved ones with any gift to a rich businessman giving bonus to employees, everyone will face their own level of financial struggle on the so called special day. In the list, an old grandfather who gave his words to satisfy the wish of his only grandson in a remote village is working hard to find a way to accomplish it. Finally, he came up with an idea of selling his lamb to a mutton shop in order to get the much needed money. Irony is that the little boy has an unconditional love with the lamb. Whereas the poor old man doesn't have an alternate option to keep up his promise. Did the grandfather managed to sell the goat? Did the boy allowed him to do it ? Did he got his gift as promised by his grandfather? is the crux of the story.

Started My Film Career As An Office Boy

As my father died during my childhood days, I started earning money to run my family. I worked as a paper boy in my village, where I got an interest of checking the cinema news column every day in the newspaper that I sell. Slowly the interest towards movies created a goal for me. I wanted to work as an assistant director but I don't have proper contact to reach the right people. Somehow I managed to find a person who work in cinema from my neighborhood. He helped me to get an office boy job at director Ezhil's office in Chennai. After completing a film named Amudhey, they suggested me to join with director Karu Palaniappan as an office boy again and I can proudly say that my life started there. He used to scold me if he noticed me watching television. Instead he suggested me to read books. Then I started reading a lot of books and my taste of cinema got transformed from just commercial masala films to quality films. Suriya, an assistant director who worked with director Karu Palaniappan helped me to get me an assistant director job in a film named Yathumagi.

Back To Learn From My Guru Karu Palaniappan

Then I came back to my director and told him my wish to work as an assistant director with him. Since I already worked in Yathumagi, he gave me his word. An incident happened on the same day which in turn created a strong impression to my director about me. He was looking for some type writing shop to immediately complete a one-line order for a film. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and all the shops were closed. Luckily I used the golden opportunity and informed him that I know type writing. He got surprised as he saw me only as an office boy. I explained him that I learned type-writing for survival and also worked for a few days in Ramanathapuram government register office. He immediately said with a smiling face, "If you told this earlier, I might have provided you an opportunity to work in the direction team of my previous film Pirivom Santhippom itself." I completed the work of typing the one-line order in just ten minutes and he just got stunned. As promised, he joined me as an assistant director in his immediate next film Manthira Punnagai. That was the time when film scripts were getting transformed from hand written format to printed documents. From there I slowly got promoted as associate director and co-director in films such as Udhayam, Vaalu, Kirumi and Rekka.

Faced Hurdles To Taste Success

With Vishnu Vishal as the lead actor, I started shooting for my debut feature film in 2018. Due to various reasons the film got dropped and started facing lot of struggles to come out of the incident. With all the experience and learning in cinema, I finally decided to do a film with minimum budget and completed a script as well. I met Venu Sir and he referred me to the famous Telugu producer Sravanthi Ravi Kishore. They are active in the field of movie production since 1986. They liked my script and it was a pleasant surprise for me. Usually Telugu producers will show interest in commercial films but in my case it happened like a magical moment as they agreed to produce my film which is an art house film. I approached the great performers Poo Ram and Kaali Venkat immediately. Everything happened on a positive note and we completed the shoot in just 22 days with the terrific effort of all my friends who worked as the chief technicians in the film. And that is Kida which got selected for Indian Panorama 2022.

Wish To Direct Sasikumar

Director turned actor Sasikumar is my role model and I always admire him for his successful journey in the film industry. I wish to do a film with him and I working on a script keeping Sasikumar in mind. It will be an action oriented commercial film with perfect nativity. I'm planning to reach him and narrate the script to him after completion.

About Actors Kaali Venkat & Poo Ram

Both of them are already proven actors in Tamil film industry. I feel lucky to have them onboard in Kida. My friend and well-wisher Karthi referred me to contact Kaali Venkat for a mutton shopkeeper. I narrated the script to him and he just loved it. He immediately agreed to play the role. His hard work and level of dedication is just mind-blowing. I will say him as a director's artist by the way he gets contribute to a film by getting the inputs from his directors. Amidst of his busy schedule in various films, he watched the film recently and gave me a tight hug. He got emotional and the film made him to connect personally with his childhood Diwali days. Unfortunately, the legendary actor Poo Ram is not with us anymore to witness the wonderful film. His performance just elevated the film to another level. Both of them supported this small film to the core.