CINEMATOGRAPHER NATARAJAN SUBRAMANIAM INTERVIEW

Spectacular… It really is overwhelming. We never expected the movie to have such booming response. The reason behind the success would have to be Lingusamy and Subash Chandrabose. Despite the lack of star power in the film, and a fresh team, they took up the film. They knew the market risks involved in such movies, yet they respected the content enough to go for it.

That’s the passion with which they work. I was stunned by the level of promotions they gave for Sathuranka Vettai.

As far as the feedbacks, many say the film is as impactful as Parthiban sir’s Puthiya Padhai. More than anything, few even compared my work to his. Parthiban sir is a true genius and when people compare my work with his, it’s a huge deal for me.
 

Many young directors, who watched the film during the premiere, called me and said I was good.

It’s very simple. When the director approached me for the role, he told me a dialogue from the movie. He said, “When someone cheats you, do not take him to be your enemy. In a way, he is your master, because…”
 

It was the ‘because’ part that pulled me into the script and the dialogue was the sole reason why I took up the project. 
 

After he narrated the whole script, the first thing I asked him was, “Where were you for so long?”

I have to thank producer Bharani. He has also played my Guru in the movie.

He called me one day and said he heard a fantastic script that would be perfect for me. I’m not sure why he thought that, but I’m glad he did. He sent Vinoth to me and you know the rest.            

I actually asked the director, why me, when there are bigger heroes. He said that he did approach a few of them, but they didn’t feel the adrenalin rush while they heard the script. It did for me and Vinoth knew it. I had that rush, because I knew people who had experienced similar situations like the snake sequence in the movie.  

I must also thank Manobala sir, who agreed to keep me as the lead. For a man of his reputation, he could have roped in a bigger actor. He did trust me and gave me the part, for which I’m thankful. 

If I’m not part of the cinematography department, I don’t interfere in it. As an actor, I had enough on my plate to handle and honestly I didn’t have the time to keep a watch on our cinematographer. Moreover, KG Venkatesh is a brilliant technician. As a matter of fact, he was the one to help me look better. I came across a few pretty girls who thought I was handsome, all thanks to Venkatesh. 

Cinematography is my profession and no matter how big is the job, I’ll always take it up. Santosh Sivan asked me to do a song in Thuppakki. He said, “Natty Kutta… Do this song for me… I’m stuck with something else”.
 

If a production house asks me to work on the patch work, I’ll contact the cinematographer of the project and get an NOC from him, before taking it up.
 

More than just work, this is how you build relationships. I like to be in good touch with all my colleagues. Earning friendships is more important for me. 

It’ll be a very entertaining mass film. I’ll give you more exciting details once the formal announcements are made. But I can tell you that this film will raise a lot of eyebrows.
 

Personally I’m very excited to be a part of this film, the first reason being Ilayathalapathy Vijay. Then there’s Sridevi, Sudeep, Shruti Haasan, Hansika and along with all of them I’m going to have a blast.