If Holiday works, you can expect a sequel – A R Murugadoss

One look at A R Murugadoss and it will not take you long to realize that the famous director is not more than 5’2 and is extremely soft spoken. He talks with measured pauses, is polite to a fault and the smile never leaves his happy face. It’s at times difficult to comprehend how this gentle soul directed an extremely violent movie like Ghajini. With Holiday too, he has revived the violent genre as the movie promises to showcase a lot of hardcore action packed stunts and blood spilling. Murugadoss holds another unique distinction in Bollywood. He is the director who started the 100 crore club with Ghajini way back in 2008. What’s baffling though is after making a power pack debut in Bollywood, the Tamil director took six long years to direct his next in Hindi. So what took him so long? Says Murugadoss, “I had approached Vipul Shah immediately after the release of Ghajini with the script of Holiday. I had Akshay in my mind even then. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Akshay's dates. So I decided to make it in Tamil first as Thupakki with Vijay. After Thuppakki, I was busy making films like Ezham Arivu (2011) with Surya, Stalin, which was remade in Hindi as Jai Ho and also produced movies like Engeyum Eppothum (2011), Vathikuchi (2013) and Raja Rani (2013). This is why I took six long years. Had Akshay given me dates then, I would have made Holiday long time back.” Having set the benchmark with Ghajini, Murugadoss is confident that Holiday too will break even. Talking about the movie, the director says, “I have adopted a new approach for the screenplay of the movie. Also the movie talks about sleeper cells which played a vital part during the attacks on Taj and other areas of Mumbai. This is a new Next Gen film which will change the definition of thriller films in Hindi. The film shows that it is a myth that only Muslims are terrorists because research has showed us that terrorism has no face or caste. Holiday is a serious film made in a very interesting manner. We are confident that history will repeat itself with Holiday too.” While Thupakki saw Vidyut Jamwal playing the villain, Holiday will see a new actor Farhad debuting as the negative lead. Quiz him on why Vidyut was not repeated for the movie, Murugadoss asserts, “Vidyut Jamwal was also a new villain when we launched Thuppakki. There is a lot of mystery around the villain in my film. I wanted someone who doesn’t look like a typical villain and hence chose to cast a new actor. We auditioned Farhad and found him competent. His casting was finalized after Akshay and Vipul saw his auditions. In fact, within 30 seconds of watching the video, Akshay Sir agreed to cast him in the film.” Murugadoss has now worked with two big A-listers of Bollywood – Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar. Surprisingly, more than differences Murugadoss only finds similarity between the two. “I was very comfortable working with both Aamir Sir and Akshay Sir since both are extremely punctual and are also totally involved in the projects,” reveals Murugadoss. Remakes can sometimes turn out to be dull affairs especially for the director who helmed the original. But not for Murugadoss who believes that working with new actors in remakes is always a new experience. As for now, the reticent director is eagerly waiting to see the response of Holiday at the box-office. “And if it works, you can expect a sequel,” reveals Murugadoss. Well, we will have to wait for Monday to know if Holiday has hit the jackpot or not.