Maria Raja points to an advantage of working under a director-actor, which proved helpful with Happy Raj. “Since Pradeep sir also acted in Love Todayhe entrusted the directorial duties to his assistant directors to a greater extent. That gave us all a lot of confidence,” he elaborates adding that a technique he learned in the 2022 film aided him in Happy Raj. “I believe that in a comedy film, the humour on paper is hard to bring to the screen with just scene narration. I shot every scene on my phone with my ADs acting. The footage would be properly edited with music inserts. It enables the actors to understand the emotion of the scenes. I learned this technique while making Love Today.”
Commonly, a filmmaker writes a film with an actor who might play the lead in mind. But Maria Raja differed in his approach to this as well. “The only actor I had in my mind while writing the film was George Maryan sir. The idea of Happy Raj began with his character. Actors for male and female leads were decided much later,” he says, adding that after Abbas came into the film, his responsibility spiked. “I felt Abbas sir would be perfect for this role, but it is a father character, and I was also told he settled in New Zealand. I wasn’t sure if he would be interested in joining the film. The message was passed to him, and Abbas sir was excited. He said that whether he plays a father or a grandfather is immaterial; he wanted a comeback with this film,” shares the filmmaker, who was non-committal but laughed when asked if he would use Abbas’ songs in the film. “Happy Rajlike the title, will be a fun-filled entertainer all the way through,” signs off Maria Raja.
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