Chaos around a wedding is one of the favourite sub-genres in Tamil cinema, given the societal validation it carries and the richness of its drama. Debutant Maria Raja Elanchezhian's Happy Raj is also expected to focus on the fallout between a couple over their perspectives on how their wedding should take place. "But Happy Raj is not just about the wedding. Some incidents occur before and after the wedding. The film will be a fun entertainer," he begins.
Although he worked as an assistant director to Pradeep Ranganathan in Love Today, Maria Raja shares that his first genre choice to make his debut was not comedy. "I had another project in mind, a serious film. But when I shared it with Pradeep sir, he advised me to start with a fun film. He pointed out that my strength lies in my comical one-liners and that my contribution helped the jokes land in Love Today. That was how I conceptualised Happy Raj," says Maria Raja, who followed Pradeep's suggestion to the T, that he even decided to have 'Happy' in the title. "But I would not restrict myself to one genre, even if Happy Raj becomes a great success. I have ideas to make a commercial action film as well," he further states.
Maria Raja points to an advantage of working under a director-actor, which proved helpful with Happy Raj. "Since Pradeep sir also acted in Love Today, he entrusted the directorial duties to his assistant directors to a greater extent. That gave us all a lot of confidence," he elaborates adding that a technique he learned in the 2022 film aided him in Happy Raj. "I believe that in a comedy film, the humour on paper is hard to bring to the screen with just scene narration. I shot every scene on my phone with my ADs acting. The footage would be properly edited with music inserts. It enables the actors to understand the emotion of the scenes. I learned this technique while making Love Today."
Commonly, a filmmaker writes a film with an actor who might play the lead in mind. But Maria Raja differed in his approach to this as well. "The only actor I had in my mind while writing the film was George Maryan sir. The idea of Happy Raj began with his character. Actors for male and female leads were decided much later," he says, adding that after Abbas came into the film, his responsibility spiked. "I felt Abbas sir would be perfect for this role, but it is a father character, and I was also told he settled in New Zealand. I wasn't sure if he would be interested in joining the film. The message was passed to him, and Abbas sir was excited. He said that whether he plays a father or a grandfather is immaterial; he wanted a comeback with this film," shares the filmmaker, who was non-committal but laughed when asked if he would use Abbas' songs in the film. "Happy Raj, like the title, will be a fun-filled entertainer all the way through," signs off Maria Raja.