Narrating a simple yet powerful tale

A period of twenty-five odd years in the film industry doesn’t give one the liberty to rest on his or her laurels.

The same applies to Sandalwood star Shivarajkumar, who explores every bit of the actor in him, every time he goes under the arc lights.

Every new movie he works in is a learning experience for him, he says. He feels that each one brings out a side of him that he has never known. And it’s true that the actor in him never ages.

His latest release, Kaddipudi (meaning tobacco), is proof that Shivarajkumar is an actor who is open to experimenting.

“It’s a story about a man called Anand (played by Shivarajkumar) and how  certain events in his life change him from a bad man to a good one. The story captures his struggle to shun his past and turn a new leaf,” Shivarajkumar tells Metrolife.

It’s the tale of a local boy and his vision of life. “Director Suri has narrated a simple
story in a powerful way. It captures the life of a young boy called Anand, nicknamed Kaddipudi, and how he overcomes the stumbling blocks and starts a new life when he finds true love,” states Shivarajkumar. Radhika Pandit’s characters in her previous films like ‘Drama’ and Adhuri were very loud but full of life. She brought an infectious quality to her roles.

It is every actor’s dream to juggle different characters and Radhika is no different. One will now get to see a sober Radhika in Kaddipudi, where she essays three different characters. “All three roles are very unique. The director wanted the characters to appear as real as possible,” she explains. Radhika states that while all the roles she did in her earlier projects were those she could relate to,  she had to really think out of the box in Kaddipudi’.

“In the first half of the movie, I start off as a junior artiste who is the breadwinner of her family. The responsibility of her family rests on her shoulders. When she gets married (to Shivarajkumar), her responsibilities change and she slips into married life. But the climax is in the third character, where she appears in a totally different avatar,” says Radhika.

She says that the real challenge was in portraying the different emotions required for each of the roles. “The director did well in perfecting the minor details, leaving nothing to chance. That’s the perfection that’s seen in the characterisation as well,” she shares.

This also happens to be Radhika’s first movie opposite Shivarajkumar and she confesses that she has seen all his movies and has always admired his simplicity.

“Shivarajkumar is a storehouse of energy and he’s a very realistic actor. It’s a privilege to work with him,” she signs off.