Chennai, March 2025
Dragon, the coming-of-age comedy drama released recently, has been making waves with critics and fans around the country. The film features Pradeep Ranganathan, Kayadu Lohar, Anupama Parameswaran, Mysskin, and Indumathy Manikandan, alongside Ashwath Marimuthu who has directed the film as well. Director-Actor Ashwath recently appeared in the IMDb original series ‘Behind The Scenes’, where he shared insights into what went behind creating the film, and his most challenging experience from the sets.
While sharing his experience of working alongside directors who have acted in his film, Ashwath said, “Technically, there were five directors who have acted in the film, including me. Pradeep is also a director. There were no creative differences because, at the end of the day, all of them are very proficient in their own field. They know what it takes to be a director, how a director is on set, and how it is very important as an actor to cooperate and do what the director wants. I never had the pressure of directing them, maybe they had the pressure of acting in my film because I am very restrictive as to what I want. Mysskin sir felt very restricted the first two days as I didn’t allow him to throw extra dialogues as I felt the character has to behave the way I want. On the 4th or 5th day, he started slowly understanding what I’m doing and praised me. He started enjoying the process.”
Speaking about the most challenging day on the sets of Dragon, Ashwath said, “The climax. The wedding sequence that I shot for two days. That was the first time I had almost 30 important actors on my own set. They weren’t aware that I was shooting a song. It’s more like a wedding scene where the hero gives up, he accepts the truth in front of everybody. Right from the entry of the hero till what is happening through his eyes is a song. I was going for a lot of shots and had to control the entire crowd of 400-500 people and time was running out. For me, doing a big film, this was kind of a challenge. I didn’t have any other challenge apart from this. The film is a basic drama and technically it is an easy film to crack.”
Speaking on films that inspire him and that he had kept in mind during filming Dragon, Ashwath revealed, “It’s A Wonderful Life is a film that gave me hope and helped me see the world in a different way. The character in the film feels that his existence is unnecessary in this world and he decides to die by suicide. God takes him and shows him that if he didn’t exist, an entire village wouldn’t have existed. It’s like God giving him hope, saying that you have a great wonderful life. That portion of ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ has gone into my wall as an LED. All my films will have hope that you take away. All my films are about hope, be it my first or second.”
Mentioning the moment from the sets of Dragon that he’s most proud of, Ashwath expressed, “It may sound weird, but we are usually so busy and focused with our main actors. In my case, I focus on all the junior actors as well. I feel that they also have to act well and perform well, so I take extra time to work on things with them and make them act. One of the junior actors came with a T-shirt with a dragon designed on it, alongside the words ‘we love you sir’. It came from somebody who is an upcoming actor, a secondary actor. He felt he was a part of the film and has contributed something to the film. When they were able to feel it, it’s exactly what I’m trying to do through my films. Hence, I liked that part.”
Speaking on if his own experience as an engineering student was used as an inspiration for Dragon, Ashwath revealed, “The guy getting 96% in 12th standard with a gold medal and going to college, who then seeks attention and changes to become a naughty, nonsense person by the end. He was a star in college but zero outside when he faces real life is literally myself. How I faced it is a completely different story but I took that portion of how adolescence can bother with your career and everything else.”
Watch the entire video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?