The idea behind Kaaka Muttai was conceived from Manikandan’s own family; his son longed for pizza whenever he was taken out and asked what he’d like to eat. “This was a few years ago. Back then, I couldn’t afford Rs 1,000 for a slice of pizza. But I’d anyway buy it because my son wanted it. What got me thinking was why children craved for pizza, but not for fruits or even sweets,” he said, and asked himself how children from low-income background could afford something as expensive. “I could only think of kids in the slum who work for daily wages. What if they wanted to taste a pizza? What would they do to satisfy their urge? This inspired me to write this story,” he added.
While writing this story, Manikandan was called by National award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran, who was impressed with his short film Wind. He wanted to collaborate with Mani, and asked him if he was working on something. A few lines of Kaaka Muttai were narrated and floored by what he heard, Vetrimaaran immediately decided to produce the film. “We worked out the contract and a month later, we approached Dhanush for financial support. He took a day to listen to the story, read the script and finally agreed to be part of the project,” he said. As soon as the shoot was completed, Fox Star Studios came on board and agreed to market and present the film. “When Dhanush and Fox came on board, the film had become bigger and it got us lot of attention. It helped us to market the film quite well,” he added.
Right from the beginning, says Manikandan, the plan was to send the movie to several film festivals across the globe as they felt the story was universal and would showcase the effects of globalisation from an Indian perspective. “By the time, we finished the movie, Lunchbox had won international acclamation at several festivals. This gave us lot of confidence. We were prepared to send our film to several festivals, despite knowing it’ll delay our theatrical release. Even for the world premiere, we had to wait for four months. We had also planned for release in cinemas a couple of months before the national awards, but we eventually decided to wait and it paid off,” he said. Kaaka Muttai won two National awards for best children’s film and best child actors for Ramesh and Vignesh, who had also bagged awards for the performance at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
By being shown at international festivals, particularly after its premiere in Toronto, the film has already made Rs 60 lakh through sale of its rights in Japan, Australia and New Zealand. “Typically, Tamil films are released in key international markets, but their rights are not sold. This way we leave out several countries where our films could release and make moolah. When you take a film to festivals and if it’s liked, chances are high that you may break even or earn table profits even before its theatrical release,” he said. If that’s the case, why don’t most Tamil cinema producers even think of sending their films to festivals? “Most of our films are made from money borrowed from financiers. The interest on such loans is very high. If a producer has to wait for 10 months for a film’s release, imagine the amount he’ll be paying as interest. Nobody can afford wasting so much money,” he added.
For the film, Manikandan cast real slum kids from Kasimedu in Chennai. He admits working with children can be very challenging and making a children’s film can take a toll; cause both physical and mental stress. “Having spent a lot of time with my own son, I was under the impression that I can easily work with children. It was after we started shooting, I realised I was wrong.
“More than working, it is the process of making them act that’s tough. I like scenes in my movie to be very realistic but it was a struggle to make them perform. By the end of the first week, I almost gave up on the project. It took me nearly a month to finally get the kind of performance I was looking for,” he said. But the struggle will be worth it when one sees the final footage of working with children. “It can bring a smile to your face; make you forget all the tough times. Even when you randomly capture a kid smiling, you’d cherish that moment.” Manikandan would love to make another children’s film but not so soon. The film, which has music by G.V Prakash Kumar, features actor Simbu in a cameo and actress Aishwarya Rajesh in an important role.
