Voice of Sathyanathan on OTT: Raffi says there’s a total shift in how the younger generation enjoys humour

Director Raffi’s movies Punjabi House, Thenkashi Pattanam and Two Countries have given a push to Dileep’s career, whenever he needed one. So, it was a natural choice for the actor to team up with the writer-filmmaker again for Voice of Sathyanathan, his first theatrical release post-pandemic.

The movie, which has had a decent theatrical run and is among the select few hits in the industry this year, is now set to begin streaming on Manorama Max from September 21 onwards. In an exclusive chat with OTTplay, Raffi talks about how the audience’s appreciation of humour has changed in the past few years.

Also read: Voice of Sathyanathan review: A woeful comedy drama riddled with plot holes and ironies 

‘Comedy writers and directors face an uphill task’

Contrary to his usual movies, Voice of Sathyanathan prioritises drama over the slapstick comedy elements. Ask him why and he says, “Today, majority of the audience who come to theatres are from the younger generation. How they see life is different and consequently, there’s a change in terms of who they enjoy humour. Right now, there’s a lot of comedy content on social media platforms and even TV channel programmes, which have hilarious skits. Earlier, this used to be limited to just films. Now, it’s available everywhere.”

Also read: Anupam Kher initially wasn’t interested in being part of Dileep’s Voice of Sathyanathan: Raffi 

This, he says, makes it a challenging feat for writers and directors of comedy films. “They now have to provide the audience something that is much more enjoyable that what is out there on all these platforms,” Raffi explains.

‘Comedy movies such as Jan.E.Man and Romancham worked well’

The filmmaker also says that the audience’s tastes are still fluctuating. “During the pandemic, the way the films were made also changed. Initially, there were restrictions and so people started making movies in a particular way. The audience too liked that. And if you see, not a lot of people did comedy movies during this phase,” he explains.

That said, Raffi points out that in the past two years, “the kind of films that have worked have humour”. “Be it Jan.E.Man , Romancham or Madhura Manohara Moham, these movies are able to bring people to theatres because of the comedy in them,” he says.

Raffi has currently completed three scripts – Dileep and Mamta Mohandas’ Three Countries as well as He and She. He has also written the script of Arjun Ashokan’s crime-comedy, which is directed by Nadhirshah.