Sriram Raghavan: Bought off the books and Kindle version

The Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi-starrer is set over one night

Sriram Raghavan stumbled upon a gripping story of one night when he read a French novel. Next, that meticulous mind of his - which has crafted some of Bollywood's most entertaining thrillers - sprang into action. The filmmaker bought most available versions of the book because he was certain that he wanted to tell this story on the big screen. That's how Merry Christmas began. He recalls, "One-night stories are a challenge. I loved Yash Chopra's Ittefaq [1969]. This story had shades of that. I bought off the books, only six of them were available. I bought as many Kindle versions as I could. What drew me to the story is that it's nothing like Andhadhun [2018], Johnny Gaddaar [2007] or Badlapur [2015]. It is in that genre, but is a more emotional story."

Raghavan considers himself a mainstream commercial director. After all, his last directorial venture, Andhadhun earned R457 crore globally. And yet, his films are set in a twisted world that's rarely seen in mainstream Hindi cinema. The Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi-starrer too promises to be a wild ride. "Commercial filmmakers must up the ante. When Andhadhun did fabulous business, my next step wasn't to double the business. I'm fearful of f'''ing up the original with a bad sequel. I wanted to make a film just as great, but entirely different from it. I'm easily bored of mundane stories. I've grown up on commercial cinema, and I wouldn't be happy if I made a movie that people don't get. But at the same time, I don't believe in spoon-feeding my audience. In Merry Christmas, if you miss a conversation while checking your phone, then you might miss how it ties in at the climax."

Sriram Raghavan

Having the backing of commerce allows him the liberty to take risks - from the unusual casting to the decision to go bilingual. With Merry Christmas, Raghavan has fulfilled his long-standing wish.

Raghavan says, "I wanted to make one Tamil movie in my life. Merry Christmas started off as a Hindi movie. When COVID [and the lockdown] happened, we had to break down the set in Mehboob Studios. We had time in our hand and that's when we had the idea to take the Tamil route. It looked like a great way of opening up another avenue to cut down on our costs. Katrina was always on board. But Vijay's casting was unusual. When we first met in Melbourne, he mentioned how he wanted to remake Badlapur. In that conversation, I felt Vijay could be the one, and then narrated the film to him on a Zoom call. After Vijay said yes, I had to convince Ramesh Taurani. I made him watch Super Deluxe [2019] and 96 [2018], and he was on board."

Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi in Merry Christmas

With the Tamil version, came a new team to pen it. While the Hindi version is credited to Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti and Anukriti Pandey, the Tamil counterpart is written by Pratheep Kumar S, Abdul Jabbar, Prasanna Bala Natarajan and Lata Karthikeyan. Writing the film was like being in "parallel chess rooms", says the director. "The Hindi and Tamil teams worked independently. We gave them the reins to tweak [the scenes] to suit the Tamil audience's taste. Sometimes, they would write such a brilliant scene that I would tell my team, ‘Let's remove our scene and put theirs.'"

Even the casting was a blend of two different universes. How was it to have Kaif and Sethupathi work together on a set? "It was a whimsical casting move. They are strangers in the movie. I wanted to make them have lunch together, but they couldn't talk to each other. With enough rehearsals, we soon found our equilibrium. Before shooting the most crucial scene, you would find Vijay eating vada pav; he would chill, not psych himself. But the moment he came on camera, he'd be bang on. Katrina studied to the T."

A discussion on the cast brings us to the ones who weren't cast. Much has been said about Saif Ali Khan being the first choice for the film. Raghavan clarifies it, stating, "I met him even before the script was ready. It's like giving someone a present and then taking it away. It wasn't nice of me." There's another question that users on X want an answer to: Why was Tabu, who was smashing in Andhadhun, not cast as the lead in Merry Christmas? "Tabu would have been my most obvious choice. Katrina was a break-the-mould casting. I want to work again with Tabu, but we have to top Andhadhun when we pair up next!"