Sriram Raghavan: Katrina Kaif's Hindi, Vijay Sethupathi's Hindi didn't bother me

Writer-director Sriram Raghavan's Merry Christmas, starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi, was made in both Hindi and Tamil. The film releases in theatres on January 12, 2024.

Writer-director Sriram Raghavan made his debut as a feature film director with Ek Hasina Thi in 2004. His latest film, Merry Christmas (releasing on January 12, 2024), which is also a neo-noir thriller, is only his sixth film in twenty years. Raghavan corrects that and says he has made seven films as Merry Christmas, starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi, has simultaneously been made in both Hindi and Tamil.

The film is about two strangers who have a past and devious secret. The story starts as a romance, says Raghavan, and gradually becomes a nightmare, adding that there aren’t abundant thrills as we saw in his last work Andhadhun, but there are enough twists to keep the viewer guessing.

Excerpts from an interview:

Like some of your other films, is Merry Christmas also based on a book?

Yes, it is based on a novel, but I'm not giving the name away now. It will come out when the film releases (or maybe it is out already), but I want to keep quiet about it because these stories are more fun if you don't know anything about it. Like Andhadhun is spoiler-proof. Even if you want to say something, you won't know what to say because it keeps changing. This film is not that way. There is a value in being discreet so when you go in, you go in unprepared and, if the film is good, you should be surprised and enjoy it.

Katrina Kaif opposite Vijay Sethupathi is one of the film’s USPs. Neither of them is a native Hindi speaker and only one of them speaks Tamil. Was this a consideration during casting?

I met Katrina once and she said she wanted to do something out of the box. I went to her with this after Andhadhun, and she loved it. Then I needed someone opposite her who she has not worked with before. The story required two strangers. I said let me try this out. I never saw it as a hero-heroine kind of movie. It is just two characters who meet and what happens.

Katrina has done a lot of work in Hindi, and Sethupathi speaks Tamil. But my whole idea was that this is a story about two strangers meeting and eventually it's about communication, and not about your grammar. In a story like this, the main thing is that they should be able to communicate with each other.

Of course, we had to make sure they got the lines in time, that the grammar is largely right but I didn’t want to make it rigid. We were not making something that needs that precision. I just wanted them to meet and strike up a conversation. So, I didn't see this as a big problem.

Of course, the Tamil was tough for Katrina because that was suddenly sprung on her after we started shooting the Hindi version. We got a Tamil coach on the sets; the Tamil writers would narrate the dialogues to her so she could hear it and get used to the sound of the lines and recognize her cues.

Besides language, they also have completely different approaches to acting. Sethupathi has a very intuitive approach whereas Katrina is known to be hardworking and prepared.

When I met them, I knew both their pros and possible cons. Everybody felt language might be a thing. Both of them speak in a certain way. His Hindi, her Hindi and so on. That didn't bother me at all as long as there was a rapport. Those things are not based on grammar and pronunciation. More important was feeling that these are real people. She's a character. He's a character. She comes from a certain background. He comes with a certain background. We get a sense of that.

Chemistry is something I can't write on paper. It has to happen. But I got a sense they were working together very well. And I'm very happy I decided to go with this casting. I had discussions with Katrina in the office, we went over the main scenes and I would tell her whatever I felt. But I also encouraged both of them to interpret the script. We had discussions and even arguments.

Anyway, I didn’t want it to be completely rigid. The thing I realized with Vijay, is that once he gets the scene, he will say it in his own way. He flows beautifully in Tamil but sometimes I would have to point out words he missed in the Hindi lines. As we began shooting, even though he's intuitive, and she is prepared, slowly there was some sort of osmosis between them. She understood that even if she is prepared, Vijay might do something unexpected.

Sriram Raghavan

This story is set in one night. What does that setting or time limit offer a filmmaker?

I think the fact that even the viewer knows that it is going to start and it is going to get over helps. It also makes you aware that you have to use this time to create the whole world. There can be no flashbacks and no going back and forth. The one-night story is a genre by itself. The format helps you build anticipation that something's going to happen. I love After Hours (1985), a black comedy by Martin Scorsese. It’s the characters' misadventures in one night and it is very exciting.

You are moving into a biopic space with Ikkis, starring Agastya Nanda as Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal. Why this story?

I was exploring the idea of doing a good revenge story for Badlapur 2, just to use the title and maybe for the producers to use a song. But I knew it cannot just be a regular revenge movie. I happened to be around when the producer Dinesh Vijan was narrating this story. Even though there is a lot in the public domain about Param Vir Chakra recipient Arun Khetarpal, what you read about is the heroic part to do with the 1971 war.

But as I started doing research, I discovered there's so much more to the story. The film allows me to explore a period setting, the characters, the army and that time how it was, and then add to that the story that happened 30 years after his death.

So Ikkis is not a biopic as much as it is a drama for me, with a lot of very exciting and interesting battle possibilities with tank battles. So, I threw my hat in. Dinesh went for it and I went for it. I had cast Varun Dhawan for it, but then with pandemic-related delays, I felt Varun may not match the 21-year-old I needed on screen. Varun also agreed. I needed an innocent, 20–21-year-old boy. During that time, I met Agastya, even before he had signed The Archies, and I felt this is the kind of boy and once he gets a certain amount of army training, etc., he will fit in. The film also stars Dharmendra as Arun’s father as an 80-year-old.