Royal’s Dinakar Thoogudeepa on the challenges of casting first and then deciding the script

Dinakar Thoogudeepa, who’s always decided the cast of his directorials based on his script, had to change things around for Royal

Dinakar Thoogudeepa on working with Viraat

Dinakar Thoogudeepa returns to direction with Royal, a youthful commercial entertainer starring Kiss-fame Viraat and Sanjana Anand in the lead. It’s a film that came the director’s way after his plans to collaborate with Puneeth Rajkumar fell apart following the Power Star’s untimely demise. “Producer Jayanna told me that he has a 5-film deal with Viraat and asked me if I’d like to direct one. Raghu Nidavalli, who is a reputed name as a dialogue writer in Kannada film circles, had a story that appealed to me and felt just right for Viraat. I sat with my team and developed the screenplay for the film and then went on floors,” he says.

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Dinakar: Viraat has no fixed image; it was like working with a blank canvas

Isn’t it limiting, as a filmmaker, to put together a story for an actor, instead of deciding a cast based on the requirements of the script? “I have always decided the cast of my films only after the story is in place and chosen actors who will do justice to the characters, except for Saarathi, when a story was crafted for Darshan. Royal is a story that was written for Viraat. Unlike Saarathi, where we knew what had to be added to satisfy Darshan fans, with Viraat, there was no fixed image to play to. It was almost like working with a blank canvas,” says Dinakar.

The filmmaker adds, “Viraat is a fabulous dancer, which was established in Kiss, so, I could not present him in a character that’s drastically different. A hint of what audiences have seen of him in Kiss had to be there in Royal too. But besides that, working with an almost newbie allowed me to play around with ideas that would allow us to build up his image. What was playing on my mind was that if Royal is able to do better business than Kiss, then, the next producer who decides to collaborate with Viraat will have a certain surety about his bankability.”

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The plan for Royal, therefore, was about keeping in mind that he’s easy on the eye, can dance like a charm and has decent acting chops too, says Dinakar. “In the first half, which includes the love story track, we have incorporated elements that audiences who liked hi in Kiss will expect. But beyond a point, the endeavor was to then establish that this is not the same Viraat they’d seen in Kiss and that he’s all grown up. For that, we have added certain commercial elements to present him a certain way,” he says.

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