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I was in touch with KB Sir and he asked me to come to his set. I told my assistants that he was confirmed but I wasn’t ready to go ahead with shooting. I almost confirmed him, but I still felt that something was missing. Manoj K Jayan was on my mind for the character eventually played by Prakash Raj. I am never easily convinced and so I kept searching. I wanted an artiste who is not very popular but someone whom I could introduce and who would play the character well. Of course, these thoughts have changed over the years. So when this story had to be made, I never thought of any popular faces, because I believed their image would stand out and not the character’s. He introduced Rajini Sir, Kamal Sir and around 47 actors by then. I felt I could do everything that he did, of course, I am not great like him. I could have intelligently and easily made a film with established actors. Because I worked with KB Sir from an impressionable age, I would always look up to him for everything. When I was searching for actors for the three characters, I thought from my mentor’s point of view. Secondly, I cannot do things that I don’t believe in. Until now, I have always searched for actors for my story. So, when you go back 25 years, and this being Ajith’s first break, why did you believe he was the right choice? When you cast Ajith, what made you feel that this person will be a strong hero? I am asking you this from a flashback point of view, because now he is one of our biggest stars. There was not a single punch dialogue, but the audience in every theatre clapped for it, and that is how the ‘hero’ was born. As a director, I wanted to underline and emphasise on it and even the music, shot, angle and everything else supported that heroism. That could have been shot in a wide angle too, but I felt that he had to stand and ask the same question for the heroism effect. In the first scene, Ajith gets up and asks Prakash Raj why he couldn’t take the purse, and I knew there would be applause for the scene.
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SPB was the hero who handled situations, whereas Ajith has a fight sequence and he is against a big antagonist like Prakash Raj in the film. I meant a hero who could handle villains. When you introduced SP Balasubrahmanyam in your first film, this was a hero’s role right? So did you mean movies with young heroes?
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You mentioned shooting a hero-centric film. And so, I decided that let me also create a bad character, and you saw that in Aasai. It was Mani Sir who asked me why every character in my films is always good (laughs) and if I don’t get bored. I say all this now because I feel that is where I got hold of the concept of Good Man Syndrome. In my family, during the holidays in April and May, we brothers and sisters would sit together and read at least a chapter from The Ramayana every day, because only then could we go and play cricket. I started thinking of which hero I respected the most - it was Ram from The Ramayana. I always say that the story is the hero and I absolutely believe in it too. I had a feeling I was not doing films that placed importance on the hero. Was it a conscious decision to do a slight thriller genre with Aasai as opposed to your first two films that were based on strong human relations?
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It took me five years to make a good film (laughs). So looks like you’ve planned all movies from an anniversary point of view (laughs) And it is the 20th year of Rhythm as well.