Meiyazhagan maker Prem Kumar’s next to be a Hindi film?

Tamil filmmaker Prem Kumar, who is best known for his movies like 96 and Meiyazhagan, is probably Bollywood bound. Prem was one of the speakers on a panel discussion about south cinema at the Indian Screenwriters Conference, where, one of the topics was about whether Bollywood was an end goal for any of the panelists, including Hemanth M Rao, Christo Tomy and Vivek Athreya. While Vivek was clear about staying true to their roots, Hemanth said it was subjective and would depend on the collaborators he gets to work with. Hemanth has, in the past, worked on the writing team of Andhadhun. Christo is also flexible and is doing a Hindi web show at the moemnt.  

96 was meant to be an Abhishek Bachchan film

Then Prem chimed in and said that he’s been trying to make a Hindi film since his earlier movie 96, which he wanted to pitch to Abhishek Bachchan, but failed to make headway on that. The film was eventually done in Tamil with Vijay Sethupathi in the lead. Given a chance, Prem would love to remake 96 or his more recent Meiyazhagan in Hindi, but he’s also pitching a new script for the Hindi market.

“I’ve written a script for Hindi now. I have started the process of pitching it in the industry. The main reason is the diversity of the Hindi audience. When you say Tamil industry it is just Tamil Nadu; Kannada is only Karnataka, but Hindi involves a lot of states. The diversity is huge and you can position your script in various states and the colour changes extremely. That’s a good thing about Hindi cinema,” he reckons, adding that he’s still trying to get both 96 and Meiyazhagan made in Hindi.

The filmmaker attributes his love for Hindi cinema to his upbringing, given that his father was raised in north India and exposed Prem to movies from there from a young age. “Until I got to the film institute, I always said my favourite actor was Naseeruddin Shah,” he says.