“When Mani Ratnam Asked Me To Do The Hasya Rasa, I Had To Say Yes,” Says Priyadarshan While Refuting Reports That He’ll Only Do Comedy

There was a report from a news agency recently that the prolific Priyadarshan would only focus on making comedy films from now on.

But Priyan completely refutes this report. “Why would I want to make only one kind of cinema? Of course I want to make people laugh. But I can’t keep doing comedies over and over again. The laughs will get stale. One needs to keep changing gears.All through my career I have done that. If I’ve made Hera Pheri , Hungama and Bhagam Bhaag,I’ve also made serious films like Gardish, Virasat and Kala Pani. During the year that I made Bhool Bhulaiya I also directed a tragedy Kancheevaram , the film that I consider closest to my heart.

So where did these reports of comedy-only come from?

“Search me,” prolific Priyan shrugs. “In fact my next film after Hungama 2 is a thriller. I have done a thriller only once in my career Oppam .It’s time for another.”

However fans of Priyan’s comedies need not be disappointed. “I’ve done one segment of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil anthology Navarasa. When Mani said I had to the hasya rasa I was flattered. Good that I am identified with laughter.”

Navarasa is a forthcoming Tamil anthology of 9 episodes directed by Priyadarshan, Karthik Subbaraj, Vasanth, Arvind Swami, Bejoy Nambiar, Karthick Naren, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Sarjun KM and debutant Rathindran R. Prasad.

“My episode is entitled Summer Of 92.I have a terrific cast headed by the wonderful Yogi Babu who is big name in Tamil. I enjoyed doing a shorter film as compared with a full feature film. It was challenge,what to put what not to put. But what I really enjoyed was working with Mani Ratnam,” admits Priyan.