Mind this Murugan

Fifteen years ago a south Indian cowboy stormed on the television screen with guns blazing. He asked viewers of Channel V to ‘Mind It’. Now, Quick Gun Murugun is back, in the rejuvenated avatar of Dr Rajendra Prasad on celluloid and under the direction of Shashanka Ghosh. On August 28, Quick Gun Murugun, defender of vegetarianism and nemesis of Rice Plate Reddy, is going to ride back into town.Former ad man, ex-creative head of Channel V and director of Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II, Ghosh tells us about the journey. Tell us about the genesis of Quick Gun Murugun, the movie.When we shot those promos back in 1993/94, none of us imagined that it would become our calling card. In fact Rajesh Devraj and I wrote the script soon after we made the 60 second promos. We started shopping around the script only at the end of the 90s and took to about 20 producers including Ram Gopal Varma who didn’t know how to deal with it. While working on another script, The Betel Nut Killers, I met Anand Surapur of Phat Phish and he was keen that I make Quick Gun first.How did you come to cast a Telugu actor in this Tamil-English film? I had Arshad Warsi in mind for the lead role until Anand said he wanted me to take a fat, middle-aged south Indian man. He suggested I meet Dr Rajendra Prasad. So on Rambha, Nasser and others were added to the cast. The film will be released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions too.Who played the original character?Sivakumar. He was a dubbing artist I spotted him in the studio five hours before the shoot was to begin and grabbed him for the part. I think he is in Madurai now. Tell us a little about the plot.It’s an action comedy centred on Quick Gun Murugan, a cowboy — someone who looks after cows. He has his lady loves, Mango Dolly andLocket Girl. When a vegetarian village in south India is taken over by non-vegetarian bandits,Murugun fights for his principals and is killed.Twenty-five years later, he’s reborn in Mumbai where Rice Plate Reddy now runs the successful McDosa empire.Did you watch any south Indian films as part of your research?I have never seen a south Indian film. In fact, I hardly watch movies. This is the creation of writer Rajesh Devraj. How do you react to the tag of ‘genre-busting director’ given to you?I would expand that to an Indian brat pack of filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Nishikant Kamat, Imtiaz Ali and Sudhir Mishra. We are all working with a sensibility that a few years ago would have been considered marginal, but not anymore. We might have been ahead of — or besides — the times once, but now audiences are changing. I do find it hard to define myself within genres. My thought is to create a ridiculous situation and make the actors do it as credibly as possible.