Sriram Raghavan reveals Katrina Kaif-Vijay Sethupati’s Merry Christmas is adapted from a novel: ‘What I liked in it…’

Sriram Raghavan said that he reads a lot and came across the book, which made him adapt it for the screen. “I can’t reveal the name now, but it’s in the credits. What I liked in it…well, it’s there. But one has to ensure that it should work for people who have read the book. (You have to adapt it) without disturbing the essence,” he shared.

The filmmaker shared how he is an avid reader and is always searching for stories. He also opened up about his experience with Badlapur and how the original book was in a completely different format.

Sriram Raghavan shared that the original novel, Italian bestseller Death’s Dark Abyss, was in the form of letters being shared by two people. “It was like Nawazuddin is getting letters in jail from Varun Dhawan, and he writes back. Through these letters, you get a sense of what happened.”

He then went on to share how after Agent Vinod, which did not perform well at the box office, he was trying to look for something that was pure and small. Having discovered online purchasing, Raghavan admitted that he was buying ‘quite a lot’ of books and didn’t quite enjoy many.

“One among them I picked up, and mid-way I stopped, scared. I was liking it and hoped that it would not turn out trash,” Sriram Raghavan said with a laugh, adding that he then kept the book in a drawer and decided to pen a few scenarios about what happens next.

“I was not happy with any one of it. I then started reading it cautiously and was getting slowly riveted. I stopped at times to predict.. it was like I was playing a game with myself. As it ended, I felt something. If I had wondered about whether an actor would take it up, what would happen next.. It’s pulling you down. That initial excitement (is gone). There was one producer who believed in it,” Sriram Raghavan recalled about how Badlapur was made.

Indianexpress.com asked him how important it is for filmmakers to tweak the story to ensure audiences, who have already read the book, get something new to consume while watching the film. He shared that’s where the ‘skill of a scriptwriter’ comes in handy.

“The best example will be Godfather. It was almost written for people who had read the book. Also, Psycho was a book first, and Alferd Hitchcock went and bought every single copy till the time his film was released. We, of course, cannot do that. One has to be smart and hopeful… also [this issue is] majorly in films with twists and turns. For a film like Namesake, it had a visual appeal, while the book had its own appeal. There are times when you want to see the film because you liked the book,” he shared.

On a final note, Sriram Raghavan mentioned how his next film Ikkis, with Agastya Nanda, is based on a real story. He shared how the tale of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetrapal is already in the public domain. “But film is a different medium. You may finish reading it in 10 mins, but making it a 2.5-hour film, that’s a different challenge,” the director said.