Director Girish AD, whose Nivin Pauly-Mamitha Baiju-starrer Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has emerged as another Rs 100-crore success after Naslen-Mamitha’s Premalu, has opened up about the challenges of maintaining the close-knit working culture that has defined his films, hinting at instances of “basic disrespect” and people gradually crossing professional boundaries.
Without naming anyone, Girish said some people who were once part of his team eventually moved away from its original vibe because of their growing ambitions and plans. “We usually try to bring the people we work closely with onto our wavelength. Even if one person deviates from that, it becomes a huge problem. That has happened as well. Some of the people who were with us started moving away from that vibe, with their own ambitions and plans. Everyone is ambitious. I am ambitious too. But when their ambitions become excessive, they end up becoming our responsibility,” said Girish in an interview with Cue Studio. “I am doing this for my own ambition. They can go somewhere else to pursue their ambitions. That’s how I look at it,” he added.
Girish explained that his team’s working style can sometimes be difficult for outsiders to understand, as much of their creative process happens without the visible commotion often associated with film sets. “For some people, the work we do can seem very invisible. They might think we should put on a show or create some kind of drama to show that we’re working. If they see us sitting quietly and working in a disciplined way, they might think, ‘What’s happening here? These people aren’t doing any work. Everything is just happening inside their heads,’” he said.
He also spoke about instances of mistreatment and people gradually testing the boundaries of his team. “We might experience the first instance of mistreatment and think, ‘Okay, that’s over. It’s been sorted.’ Then something similar happens a second time, and we see the two incidents as completely independent. But actually, that can be a pattern,” Girish said. “They gradually keep pushing our boundaries to see how much we will tolerate and how far they can go. The more that experiment succeeds, the more privilege they assume they have,” he added. Girish clarified that such behaviour may not always be deliberate, describing it instead as “basic disrespect” that can emerge unconsciously.
The filmmaker contrasted this with his experience of working with Nivin Pauly on Bethlehem Kudumba Unit. He said Nivin’s willingness to enter their creative space without imposing his established ways of working was crucial to the collaboration. “I first got to know Nivin Chettan as a star. Even before I started making films, he had already done Premam and become a huge star. But he was willing to come into our space and work that way. That was very positive,” Girish said. “If he had come in and said, ‘I have certain things of my own, and I won’t let go of those,’ it would have been difficult. We wouldn’t have got this Justin chettan. But he was willing to immerse himself in it,” he added.
Girish also revealed that Bethlehem Kudumba Unit was originally planned as his immediate follow-up to Premalu. However, the latter’s massive success led the team to briefly explore Premalu 2. “There was a chance, and it was a really good chance, and it would've probably hit twice as hard as Premalu. We did work on it, but it didn’t happen for various reasons. Eventually, we decided to go ahead with this film as we had originally planned,” he said.