With Chanakyan not coming up as part of the Kamal A2Z series yet, this might be a good time to hear from the old favourite’s director. Here’s an old interview from Rediff.com with Rajeev Kumar. Excerpts:

…I had this dream of making a film with mimicry as the background.

Finally, when I got my chance to make a film for Navodaya, I thought of my dream. As the director, I was very excited about the theme and the climax because I thought it was very unconventional.

…Then Navodaya fixed up an appointment with Kamal Haasan for me. I went there, met him and narrated the script. He agreed to do the film. Remember, I didn’t know him at all. I told him, “This is my first film and the producer has confidence in me. Similarly, you should have confidence in me. I cannot make any changes in the script as this is my first film and this is the way I want to make it.” He was very positive in his approach.

The advantage I had by making the film with Kamal was that nobody expected anything from him as he experimented with bold themes. Every twist in the story stunned the audience. That was why the film became a big commercial success. The film surprised the audience.

…Chanakyan was a success and was well appreciated. But the reality was something else. Not a single producer came forward with an offer because Chanakyan did not fall in the usual commercial category. They considered its success an accident.

I was worried. Then, I was asked to do a period film with Kamal. Kamal was very excited about the project but, after researching and working on the script for more than a year, it did not work out.