Arunraja Kamaraj: Nenjuku Needhi has nothing to do with boosting the political image of Udhayanidhi

It was announced much earlier that lyricist-actor-filmmaker Arunraja Kamaraj will direct the Tamil remake of Article 15. Boney Kapoor, who is producing the project, had announced a few months ago that the remake version has been titled Nenjuku Needhi. Udhayanidhi was brought on board to essay the lead role in the movie which was played by Ayushmann Khurrana in the original version.

The movie is all set for a theatrical release on May 20. In a chat with TOI, Arunraja said that he is not bothered about the possibilities of critics comparing Udhayanidhi's political background with the story of the film.  

He also added that Nenjuku Needhi will be an ideal remake and that it was not made with the intention of boosting the political image of the actor-politician. Arunraja said, "From the beginning, I considered him as an actor who is playing the protagonist in the film. We had no other intentions."

According to the filmmaker, both of them believe in social justice and it was this commonality which brought them together for the movie. The Kanaa director added that Udhay had completely surrendered to himself during the shooting of the film and never interfered in the script. 

The highlight of Article 15 was that its story was based on a real incident. When quizzed about changing the story to suit the nativity of Tamil audience, Arunraja said that the remake touches upon the mindset that inspires people to commit such crimes.

He said, "It may be true that down south, the number of such violent crimes aren't happening. But we do come across various discriminative attacks on a daily basis. Hence, we decided to keep the crime in our version as a fictional one."