A story woven around romance and sports

Director

Susienthiran

sure has a soft spot for sport subjects. As we walked into the set of his

Champion

, starring newcomer Vishwa and

Mirnalini

in the lead, the director was busy making the actors Vishwa and Sowmika Pandiyan do a scene multiple times. He was waiting for the right expressions, but not once did he lose his cool. “I am generally very friendly with my artistes. Now that they are newcomers, I am even more careful. I don’t want them to get upset as it affects the actors in them,” smiles Susienthiran.

The movie’s trailer has established that this

sports

film is set against the backdrop of north Madras, and the director says that there is a large dose of action, revenge, and a cute love story entwined in it. He says, “I knew that I wanted to make a film on football, but the story wasn’t in place. Chennai’s north Madras is known for its football enthusiasts. I met people there and slowly things fell in place for me. If you visit their places, you won’t see a poster of cricket players. You will only see posters of Diego Maradona, Pele, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in their homes. They have tattooed the names of their favourite football players and even sport hairstyles made famous by these players. It is a different world altogether. They have been playing football for generations now, but only a few take their passion to the next level. Many don’t even know what is the format to get into the Indian team. Only if you start training by 16, will one be able to join the team by 19. Sports people’s career span is short and you need knowledge as to how to go about it. And of course, there are several distractions that the young players face. My story is about all of that. I also spoke to Elango, a football player, on the various challenges as well.”

Talking about the cast, Susienthiran says, “The lead is played by newcomer Vishwa. I am talking about a guy who is in his teens in the film. I wanted someone who looks the part and is good at sports as well. He is a national-level squash player. He trained in football for almost a year. The reason why I cast Vishnu Vishal in Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu was because he’s a sportsperson. You can train anyone in sports, but only trained sportspersons have energy. And that’s why I chose Vishwa. Mirnalini plays the female lead. Unlike other films, in which women characters are used as a distraction for the hero, here she motivates him. There’s also Sowmika, who plays his school crush, who helps him pursue his passion. Narain plays a football coach, and Manoj Bharathiraja essays an important role as well. It is a raw film, with elements of action and revenge. I’m sure the cinematography by Sujith Sarang will be much spoken about.”

The team wrapped up all the sports portions and was filming a cutesy romance between the characters played by Vishwa and Sowmika. “They are classmates and he wanted to join an academy to train properly. She helps him by giving money and there is a cute romance that happens… more like a school crush,” he informs.
Vishwa tells us, “I’ve always wanted to act in films. After my education, I went to Soori sir, whom I’ve known for a long time. He put me on to Susienthiran sir. They had an audition and I went to train in football. My character is from north Madras, and I observed people and their lifestyle there as well.”

Sowmika adds, “I’ve known Susi sir for some time now and we worked in Suttu Pidikka Utharavu as well. My part appears in the school portions. Susi sir is a nice person, very down-to-earth. He goes for multiple takes till he is satisfied with the final output. That way, a newbie like me can only get to learn a lot of things.”