Quiz Gautham if the phenomenal success of Premam and the fact that Richie is Nivin’s first remake add pressure to deliver and he says: “He’s the kind of actor who comes with no baggage, thereby there’s no room for pressure. But he was hell-bent on doing this project and it gave me a lot of confidence," he says. “I remember telling Nivin that he should go and work with a big director because of the pan south Indian popularity Premam earned him. When Premam released and we saw its reception in Tamil Nadu, we felt we could do this project in Tamil,” Gautham says, adding Richie was officially signed ten day after the release of Premam. “Everyone was interested in doing a bilingual with Nivin, but we were more interested in doing a straight Tamil film. After watching the film, he called me one early morning and said he wanted to do the project.”ĭespite Nivin’s willingness to do the project, no producer was willing to do the film in Tamil. He wasn’t sure about the idea of a remake but nevertheless asked me to get the DVD. This is when I saw a Kannada film (Ulidavaru Kandanthe) made by my friend Rakshit Shetty and recommended it to Nivin. But we always kept in touch, discussed ideas and we aspired do a film the way we want to do. Unfortunately, that project didn’t materialize because we couldn’t find the right producer. Recalling how the project materialised, Gautham says: “I’ve known Nivin since the release of Neram, and I had even met him with a script which he had liked.
Their friendship has turned into a successful collaboration, and Gautham can’t quite describe their relationship in words. Nivin and Gautham have known each other for a long time. The film marks the directorial debut of Gautham Ramachandran who, in an exclusive chat with Firstpost, opens up about working with Nivin, their long-standing friendship and why it’s been blissful to work with him. All eyes are on actor Nivin Pauly’s big Tamil debut Richie, which has hit the screens this Friday.