Exclusive: Here's what Vetrimaaran had to say about Venkatesh in Narappa

Handling a remake of a film that is as popular as Asuran is nothing short of a monumental challenge for any filmmaker, but director Sreekanth Addala, actor Venkatesh and team Narappa pulled off the unexpected with the Telugu version. Narappa released directly on Amazon Prime Video on July 20. Despite many opining that Narappa is a frame-by-frame remake of the original, it takes some skill to lend authenticity to a rustic story in a new language in a different setting, especially when a mainstream actor like Venkatesh is playing the lead role. Prior to the release and during the initial promotions for the film, here's what Vetrimaaran had to say about Narappa.

"When Vetrimaaran saw Venkatesh's first look in Narappa, he made a congratulatory call to the team appreciating our efforts. He wrote the story keeping a 50-60-year-old actor in mind in Tamil but things didn't go as per plan. He had to give a makeover to Dhanush to suit the story. The makeup for Dhanush used to take hours every day and all along, Vetrimaaran was nervous if people would accept Dhanush in an elderly role. He specifically mentioned that Venkatesh looked exactly like how he imagined the original character Sivaswamy. He suggested we take a different approach with the flashback episode in the second half but Venkatesh felt it was better to not tinker with the original and leave things as is," a source from Narappa's direction team informed OTTplay.

Vetrimaaran's Asuran, that released in theatres on October 4, 2019, is an adaptation of a Tamil novel Vekkai, written by author Poomani in the early 1980s. The director, meanwhile, is on a film-announcement spree these days. While he's working on Viduthalai that stars comedy actor Soori in the lead, he has also committed to a film titled Vaadi Vasal with actor Suriya soon. Apart from that, he is slated to work on a film headlined by actress, singer Andrea Jeremiah. The filmmaker also announced a spin-off of his hit film Vada Chennai for a leading OTT platform, which hasn't made much progress yet.