Madhagaja is high on emotion, and peppered with just the right dose of action: Sriimurali

In the past few days, Sriimurali has been busy promoting his December 3 release, Madhagaja. Despite the excitement surrounding the film, which, he is very proud of, being out and about for the show to go on has not been easy for him. In all his interviews for the film, including with us, it’s been palpable that he is yet to come to terms with the devastating loss caused by the tragic and untimely passing of his cousin, Puneeth Rajkumar. Every time the subject comes up – and it does quite often – Sriimurali gets teary-eyed, his voice trembles; but then he attempts to compose himself because of how much Madhagaja means to him. This is, after all, a film that the whole team has spent the last three-and-a-half years on.

The trailer of Madhagaja, which dropped a couple of weeks ago was quite action-packed, but the Roaring Star maintains that action is only a part of the film. “Madhagaja is a film about the relationship of a mother and son, which, I truly believe, will strike a chord with all mothers and sons. I am eager for audiences to see the film tomorrow, because then they will understand what I am trying to say,” is all Sriimurali is willing to divulge at this point.

Fair enough! But Madhagaja is also a film by a director who is only one film old – Mahesh Kumar’s claim to fame is the Sathish Ninasam starrer Ayogya. “When you are making a movie, it is not only about the story. It is just as much about the team and if the members are going to be capable of handling the execution, as it is about whether I can work with them seamlessly. These are some of the factors that come to my mind when I am approached for a film. No matter how good the script is, if I am not comfortable with the person that I have to work with, I won’t do it. With Mahesh, what struck me first is that I liked him as a person; he’s a listener and only such people can do something good or better in life. Listeners will prosper in life, because they are open to constructive feedback, will correct mistakes if any and work towards the greater good of any project they handle. This is what I liked about Mahesh,” says the actor.

Sriimurali adds that when he signs up for a film, there is a process involved in preparing the script before the team goes on floors. “There are some professional secrets that I carry to handle this and I don’t make a big noise about it, because not many will understand the logic behind it – how I plan and look at things. With Madhagaja, I liked Mahesh, as well as the producer, Umapathy Srinivasa Rao. I could see that Umapathy is truly passionate about cinema. When basic things like these – a strong production house and a director who is friendly enough that I can discuss and share my thoughts with – you get a comfort zone. That helped us make a good film,” he says.

How was Sriimurali convinced that Mahesh could handle a film on the scale of Madhagaja? Even with the most brilliant script narration, there’s always the risk of the film faltering in execution. “When Mahesh narrated the script, I felt it was good. But as a team, we decided to change it around a bit, because it would be my follow-up project to Bharaate and had to be vastly different. I wanted to explore a new genre with Madhagaja. Prashant Neel, who turned my career around in 2014 with Ugramm, is a big part of my decision-making process, so I showed him the script. Prashant had some inputs, which Mahesh incorporated to get the best out of the script,” explains Sriimurali.

The team, says the actor, has not attempted anything out-of-the box with Madhagaja. “We are presenting a story that is high on emotion, and is peppered with just the right dose of action. Even the action sequences are not run-of-the-mill; they have been executed to technical perfection. I don’t want to blow our trumpet, but the work that the whole team of Madhagaja has put together is something to watch out for,” he signs off.