We often see old videos going viral on social media. Now, an old video of Lal Jose sharing a funny incident from the shooting of Classmates has gone viral. Lal Jose recalls that Kavya Madhavan cried, insisting that she wanted to play the role of Razia, portrayed by Radhika in the film.
On the day of the first scene’s shoot, everyone else arrived except Kavya. In the morning, I had sent James to narrate the story to her, though I hadn’t told the entire story. Since it was my film, I was prepared. After James narrated the story, he told me there was something off—she seemed to have tears in her eyes. I assumed she got emotional from the story. I asked everyone to get ready, but she refused to come. So I went to see what the issue was. Kavya said, ‘I’m not the heroine of this film; Razia is the heroine. I can play Razia if you want. Otherwise, get someone else to play this role.’
I told her she could never pull off that character. An established heroine like Kavya playing Razia would make the audience think there’s something special about the character. Razia needs to appear as an unimportant character at first, just another girl in the group, who eventually becomes significant by the end of the film. Otherwise, the suspense of the story would be lost. I explained to her, ‘You are the lead heroine in this movie. Sukumaran is the hero. The complication in their love story comes from the love angle between Murali and Razia.’ After convincing her with these details, Kavya agreed to act, but she did it out of love and respect for me. She’s a smart girl and understood that Razia scores in the final stages of the film. But that couldn’t be changed; otherwise, the movie wouldn’t work.
Anyway, Lal Jose’s candid revelations about the past have now been picked up on social media.”
