Valatty director Devan: We had to devise new tricks to get various reactions from the dogs

It’s always a matter of excitement when you try to bring out a film that’s the first-of-its-kind in Indian cinema. But this excitement can also soon turn into frustration when the wait lasts for over three years. For debutant filmmaker Devan, who is set for the release of his film Valatty: The Tale of Tails that has real-life dogs essaying its central characters, the wait has been long and fortunately, the excitement has also lasted.

The movie, which features a Rottweiler, a Golden Retriever, a Cocker Spaniel and a dog of an indigenous breed in the lead, with popular actors such as Soubin Shahir, Roshan Mathew, Ranjini Haridas, Aju Varghese and Sunny Wayne lending their voices to the canines.

In an exclusive interview with OTTplay, Devan opens up about the training of the dogs, the filming process and what to expect from the movie.

You have been working on the movie for over three years now – right from adopting these pups, training them and then shooting the film and the ensuing post production. As a debutant filmmaker, you must have been bursting with excitement in the beginning to release the film. Has that ever changed in the past 24 months?

Honestly, right now, I am curious about how the audience will appreciate the film. Am I bubbling with excitement? I am happy. Because it’s a film that we have been working on for so long and just before its release, it’s the curiosity to know the audience’s feedback that is dominating.

Also read: Waiting for Valatty & Neymar's release? Revisit these unforgettable dog films on Hotstar, Jio Cinema and Netflix 

When you spend so much time on a movie with dogs, does it also change you in some respect – as a person?

I am not someone who started interacting with pets because I did this film. From a young age, I have been fond of animals. That’s something I have got from grandmother. I have always been emotionally attached to animals and that just carried over while shooting the film too. Dogs have been family and I think that, to an extent, would have helped me do Valatty.

You had earlier told us that the pre- and post-production phases took more time than shooting the movie with animals, because they were trained based on the script. But when you have animals essay the main characters, you are never sure about what you will be getting till you shoot it.

Let me clarify that the shoot was comparatively easier than the pre- and post-production, but that doesn’t mean it was a cakewalk. It could have been tougher, but because we had done the prep work earlier, it helped make matters easy. Shooting with dogs itself was a task, but amid that we had to deal with COVID-19 restrictions and that made it all the more challenging.

Also read: 777 Charlie was told more from a human perspective but Valatty is entirely from dogs’ POV: Devan | Exclusive 

Also, we had done a lot of work beforehand to know what we should be doing to get a particular expression out of the dogs. For instance, during the pre-production phase, we understood what triggered happiness, anger and disappointment in them and how to get these reactions out of them. So, we were prepared like that.

But even then, there were scenes for which we had to wait for hours at a stretch to get what we wanted. For instance, there was a scene where we wanted the dog to be sad. But it was cheerful and we couldn’t do anything to make it feel sad as it would mean that it would be in low spirits throughout the day and we wouldn’t be able to shoot anything. So, we found out new tricks and methods to achieve all of this.

Even though most of the dogs in the film are trained, there are canines that weren’t even trained for a day. In the case of the latter, we had to patiently wait to get those natural reactions from them.

Could you take us through how you and your team got to know these dogs better to get these reactions out of them?

During the pre-production, for almost six months, the dogs, their trainer and our team stayed together in a place in Kollam. During this phase, we also made the dummies of the shoot equipment including the lights and familiarised the dogs with them because it was essential that these didn’t scare them while filming. My direction team as well as the film’s DOP Vishnu Panicker took them to the locations.

It was also important for me and the DOP to be on the same page, for us to know when we got exactly what we wanted. So, I had to learn first and then educate others. After a point, everyone was in sync and that made our jobs easier.

In a nutshell, is Valatty: The Tale of Tails, a children’s film or something that even adults can enjoy?

It’s a movie that children as well as those with the hearts of children will enjoy. Dogs have an innocence. We know that kids have that innocence, but this film would appeal to anyone who carries that innocence in their minds, irrespective of their age.