‘Dear Friend’ has a different take on friendship’, says director Vineeth Kumar

In his second directorial venture, the actor has brought together an ensemble cast headlined by Tovino Thomas and Darshana Rajendran

Vineeth Kumar is ecstatic that he has ticked many boxes from his wishlist in his second directorial, Dear Friend, which releases on June 10.

The actor, who made his directorial debut with the Fahadh Faasil-starrer Ayaal Njaanalla in 2015, has fulfilled his dream of working with cinematographer Shyju Khalid and the writer duo of Sharfu and Suhas, known for films such as Varathan, Virus and Puzhu.

Vineeth has hit a jackpot with the cast too. Besides Tovino Thomas, Darshana Rajendran and director Basil Joseph, the film has Arjun Lal, Arjun Radhakrishnan and Sanchana Natarajan. They play a group of friends based in Bengaluru.

“There have been many films on friendship. But Dear Friend has a different take on friendship. We all have that dear friend (s) whom we believe will be with us for ever. We share our joys, hopes and fears with them, even those that we don’t tell our immediate family. But what if that friend decides to get out of that relationship? That’s when you realise that you have not understood that person. Dear Friend explores this angle of friendship.”

It was Arjun Lal who took the story idea to Vineeth. “He has lived in Bengaluru for some time and so the narrative has a lot of his personal experiences. I felt that it had the potential to be made into a film. But since I was busy with pre-production work of my second film after Ayaal Njaanalla at that time, we thought of doing it later,” says Vineeth. However, later, he focussed on Dear Friends and put his second project on hold.

Vineeth observes that Tovino’s is a new character in his filmography. “There is an innocence in his dialogue delivery and we wanted to tap into that aspect of his acting. Even though I was not sure if he would be able to pull it off, he was on track within a couple of days. As for other actors, they were chosen because we thought they fit the bill.”

He says that the actors got along so well on their own that he did not have to make any effort. “They are sensible, experienced actors. I wanted their performances to be organic and I got exactly what I wanted. After the shoot they would hang out together, party and have fun. Besides Bengaluru, we had a 10-day schedule in Mumbai as well. Some of them were not even needed for those scenes, but they travelled to Mumbai, paying from their pocket just to be with the team,” he adds.