Aishwarya Rajinikanth’s latest directorial – ‘Lal Salaam’- was released last month. The movie had a significant role from her father, superstar Rajinikanth. While the movie managed to create significant buzz, it failed to resonate much with the audience. It went on to receive mixed reviews from the audience and the critics. In a latest interview, the filmmaker opened up about how she felt seeing this mixed reaction from the audience and how the story was changed when Rajinikanth came on board.
In a conversation with Cinema Vikatan, Aishwarya Rajinikanth talked about how Rajinikanth was roped in for ‘Lal Salaam.’ She mentioned that initially, the actor had a cameo role in the film, but when he joined the movie, she felt it was not justified to give a mere 10 minutes to an actor of his stature. She said, “When we wrote the story, the character of Moideen Bhai (played by Rajinikanth) was only there in the film for 10 minutes. He was just another character in the film, like Senthil, Jeevithamma, or Kali. But when someone with the status of a Superstar is brought in to play that character, we couldn't just let it remain for a mere 10 minutes.”
She continued, “Eventually, the film revolved around Moideen Bhai, and that is the right way for the story to go forward as well. When an actor of that magnitude comes into the project, it is only right that the film should revolve around that character.”
Aishwarya also opened up about how some scenes were shuffled and how the audience might have perceived those. She added, “We wanted to have a non-linear format of storytelling but that did not work thoroughly with the audience. So, two months before the film's release, we reshuffled some scenes to add Moideen Bhai in the first half and we wanted 20 minutes more before the climax so that we could have had more compelling scenes to connect with the audience.”
Addressing the criticism, she said, “As a filmmaker, I understood that the audience saw it differently. I will take both criticism and appreciation equally and happy, I can better myself, and that is the biggest learning.”
‘Lal Salaam’ revolves around two cricketers who hail from different religious backgrounds. The movie was released on February 9.
