The movie 'Paisa Paisa' directed by Prashanth Murali was released in 2013. According to the director, the movie, which has Indrajith, Mamta Mohandas, Aju Varghese, Daniel Balaji and Sandhya playing the key roles, cannot be categorised into a particular genre.
“There is drama in it. At the same time it can also be called a thriller. It's in fact a realistic thriller,” Prashanth says. The thread of the film is how lives of six people in two cities change for ever in a span of two hours over a small amount of money or the dearth of it.
"There were several outdoor scenes in the film which were challenging to shoot. The scenes in which Indrajith had to ride a bike on the busy streets of Kochi, for example, were shot with great risk. The crew also faced crowd management issues on several occasions,” he says.
Prashanth recalls a scene that was shot in a critical situation. He says how a day scene in the film was shot at midnight after a crisis arose when the bank which had earlier granted permission to shoot there later reversed its stand and revoked the permission.
The scene was that of Kishore, the character played by Indrajith, trying to deposit a sum in the bank at noon on a Saturday to rescue his friend kidnapped by a goon in Chennai.
“The scene we see as day in the film was actually shot at midnight. The bank which had earlier given permission went back on the promise. Then we had to go searching for a new location. Finally, we got a new bank for the shoot. By the time we were ready it was close to midnight,” Prashanth says.
“We didn't have another day to spare as Indrajith had to reach the location of another film the next day. And we made night into day by flooding lights,” he adds.
Prashanth recalled that the scene in which Indrajith grabs the manager, (Sunil Sukhada) by the collar, and then releases him suddenly by repenting the sudden rage, was widely appreciated.
The film strikes a chord with the common man as it narrated a story that can happen to anyone. A situation, whereby one goes berserk to gather money, no matter how meagre or insignificant, may sometimes turn catastrophic, Prashanth says.
“Only the denomination may vary. For some it may be thousand and others it may be rupees one lakh. But such crisis is universal,” he asserts.
Prashanth says that the film was an untimely release. “Untimely in the sense that the film was released along with big budget films, then, it was the rainy season and so on,” he says.
However, the film later became a channel hit with a high TRP rating and Netflix was prompted to buy it for the content and the performance of the lead actors, Prashanth sums up.
