Exclusive! Director Sri Vetri Opens Up About His Debut Tamil Film Narkarappor Starring Lingesh & Abarnathi

Updated: Friday, July 28, 2023, 20:45 [IST]

Director Sri Vetri About Narkarappor: Director Sri Vetri was born in 1981 in his native Vathalagundu, Tamilnadu. Without a strong family background, he struggled a lot to become a filmmaker. Earlier he worked as an assistant director with director Rajapandi's films Achamindri and Ennamo Nadakkuthu.

Then he worked in the sensational blockbuster Sathuranga Vettai, where director H Vinoth also gave him the opportunity to play an important role in it. He also wrote dialogues and took part in story discussions of many Tamil films. Finally, he tried hard to make his own film and approached Mr. Velayutham of V6 Film production.

They liked the script and thus the project of 'Narkarappor' is kicked off. Director Sri Vetri's thirst for cinema didn't get satisfied and he is still running behind it. Let's get a lot more exclusive information about the film "Narkarappor" from director Sri Vetri.

What is the story line of Narkarappor ?

It's about a war between so-called Rich and Poor people in the society. The story revolves around a single mother and her extremely talented son, who is growing up as a brilliant chess player. Did she managed to brought up her son as a grand master amidst all the struggles? is the crux of the story.

During my childhood days, I had a good friend, who is very much interested in playing chess. His mother was a sanitary worker in the municipality. He worked hard to get till district level championship but he couldn't go beyond it due to his position in the society and his financial situation. His mother also tried a lot to help him but she couldn't.

Suddenly he decided to leave this filthy world of discrimination and fell into a speedy lorry in front of my eyes. He died on the spot. The incident created a severe impact to his mother. She couldn't get away from his thoughts and his passion towards chess. Her life is an inspiration for me. I took it as the one-line and created a story around it with my own imagination.

How did you come to cinema ?

Right from 3rd standard I started thinking to become a filmmaker, where most of my friends concentrated more in sports. When I was studying 8th standard, I had an argument with my mother to join in the film industry. After finished my schooling I joined Diploma in Electrical and Electronics.

After completing that I join with Ashok Leyland as Junior Engineer. After that all my thoughts was roaming around about to become a film director. So, I resigned the job with lots of struggle join with Mr.Rajapandi.

Why did you choose Lingesh as the lead ?

Lingesh my close friend, Who I know for more than 8 years. One fine day I narrated this script to him immediately he accepted the role without any hesitance. He played the role of a sewage worker in the film.

He completely got transformed into the skin of the character that I wrote and he just lived as the character throughout the flashback. He gave the soul to the character. His dialogue delivery and his improvisation is just amazing. You will feel it while watching the film. This film will give him the much needed big break in his acting career.

Other important characters

Abarnithi played the female lead. Her earlier films were Thean and Jail. Actor Suresh Menon has played the antagonist in the film and Setthumaan Aswin played the most important little boy character.

What kind of films you want to do ?

Not particular films I have script for all genres with a socially responsible content in it. My stories will always have an inspiration from some true incidents and I will create an interesting screenplay around it. On the other hand, I'm accountable for my producer and I will do films that generate profit to them. If a producer succeeds, he will give opportunities to more filmmakers like me. And my success will create an identity to every technician who worked in the film.

How did you select your actors ?

Casting is an interesting process for me. If the look of an actor suits for my character, I will check with his performance and dedication towards the project. I won't get settled an actor easily. I will always have multiple options in mind.

In this film, Lingesh is the only actor whom I fixed without looking for any other option. Apart from him, Aswin impressed me with his acting skills at his first attempt in the audition and I selected him immediately. All other characters took a lot of time to find its actors.

Tell us about the landscape where you shot the film

The current portions of the story based in Chennai and the flashback portion happens in Dindigul. We shot the film in Dindigul for 15 days and 35 days in Chennai. We just have 3 more days to complete the entire shoot. And we are planning to release the film in 2023.

Major technicians

Cinematographers Arjun Ravi and Gnanasekar did job with their sensible work. Ranjith is our editor and this is his second film after STR starrer Maha. The Debutant Music director Dinesh Antony composed the songs and background music for the film. Pugazhendhi wrote the lyrics and Sriman is our art director. His previous work in "Tanakkaran" was commendable.

What is your learning from Narkarappor ?

We should know the budget of our film before pitching it to a producer. If I'm an independent film maker it won't be a big problem since you can understand the situations and adopt to the additional budget that is required during production. For example, we will write a scene where a character jumps from a mountain or a chess competition with hundreds of players participating.

But the cost involved in production for those particular scenes will be too high. So we should write a scene with proper understanding about the problems associated with the budget of the film. That's the biggest thing I learned as a filmmaker with my debut film "Narkarappor".