Dulquer Salmaan’s bilingual anthology film Solo, directed by Bejoy Nambiar, received mostly withering reviews upon its October 6 release. Salmaan plays four characters who are incarnations of fire (Siva), earth (Rudra), water (Shekhar) and wind (Trilok).
Taking into account the poor response and the much-criticised ending, Solo’s producers swung into action a few days after the film’s release. They changed the ending without telling Nambiar, who took to Twitter to say that he stood by his film, good or bad.
Salmaan, in response, put up a Facebook post pleading audience members to give his film a chance. “Don’t kill Solo, I beg you,” he wrote, asking people to approach the movie with an open mind.
Shekhar’s track should have been longer, Salmaan acknowledged. “Films like Solo are any actor’s dream,” he wrote. “I loved it the moment I heard it. I loved every second of shooting it. And now I love the final product on screen. I put my heart and soul into the film. On a limited budget to make such a big film, we put our blood and sweat into it. And I’ll do it again for films like this. For films I believe in. For films I find ‘different.’”
Salmaan added that he felt hurt that people were mocking the Rudra section for being “unintentionally funny”. He wrote that the story was envisioned to be one with humour from the very beginning. Dark comedies should be awkward, he insisted.
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