Behindwoods
January 24, 2005

A chat with director and actor Cheran whose latest hit film is Autograph. Excerpts from that chat are as follows:

What is the secret of your success?

I always think that I must give some message to the people through my stories. This is the only thing that has taken me to success. It doesn’t matter how many films you give, what matters is that how many good films you have given. Good stories with good scripts alone would reach the mass.

About your success in Autograph…

In a crowd of girls wearing modern dresses if one girl alone wears a traditional dress, the minds of the

people would be attracted towards the girl wearing a traditional dress. This concept can be applied to our film industry. Nowadays, people want variety. There expect something different in a movie for their moneys they give. In Autograph, I have introduced a person who undergoes changes in various stages of life. The story of Autograph was completely different from the others stories which paved the way for its success.

Many say that this Autograph is based on a real life story…

Yes of course it is a real life story. In Pandavar Bhoomi, Vetrikodi Kattu films, you could see that the stories were moving on a cinematic line with more exaggeration. At that time, these films proved to be good. I have presented the film, Autograph in such a way as it would apply to many people who saw the movie.

Why did you give an English title for the film, Autograph?

At that time I didn’t know the exact meaning of the word, 'autograph' in Tamil. So I gave an English title for that film. But hereafter, I will make it a point to give Tamil titles for my films. We are using lot of English words while speaking in Tamil. We just call a bi-cycle as cycle in Tamil. Once when I visited a village, people over there have asked me several times to sign in their ‘autograph’. So I thought even people who are not educated will also understand the ‘autograph’.

Any idea of doing fantasy stories…

I am thinking of doing a film of that type. I would be doing a commercial film in the near future. I am expecting that day to come soon.