Before Lokesh Kanagaraj, Siddharth Was Final Choice for Arun Matheswaran’s ‘DC’ A Decade Ago, Says DOP Mukesh G (EXCLUSIVE)

Mukesh G, who serves as director of photography of “DC,” tells Variety India that Siddharth was the near-final choice when director Arun Matheswaran was developing the project roughly a decade ago, when the story was set in a more urban landscape. Before Lokesh Kanagaraj came on board as the lead of “DC,” the gangster drama was a very different film — and Siddharth was almost its leading man. 

“‘DC’ was completely different 10 years ago. There were so many heroes who wanted to do it. At that point of time Siddharth was almost the final choice for us to mount the film. He was almost supposed to do the film,” says the director.

At the time, multiple stars were aware of the script, says the DoP. But the version being developed at the time “was in a different terrain, it was more of a city-based film,” he shares. “It was still a gangster film, but completely different from what we had.”

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The project’s long gestation eventually took it in another direction. Notes Mukesh, “See, 10 years before, Siddharth was supposed to play the role. After that when things took long to materialise, everyone went on to do something else and completely lost track of everything,” Mukesh says.

By the time “DC” was revived, the Arun Matheswaran were working with a substantially altered version of the story and a different creative landscape. The eventual film starred Lokesh Kanagaraj in the title role, with Wamiqa Gabbi playing Chandra.

From Parvati to Chandra

Mukesh also reveals that the female dynamic at the centre of “DC” evolved significantly during the film’s long journey to the screen.

“There was a Chandra in mind, but Parvati and Chandra had an equal part in that,” he says. “A little more elaborate version of Parvati was there, but Arun wanted Chandra to take the main badge just because he wanted that Bonnie and Clyde feel for two characters. He didn't want the audience to get confused.”

That shift helped establish the eventual dynamic between the two central characters, with Chandra becoming the principal female presence alongside Lokesh’s character in DC.