CINEMATOGRAPHER RAVI K CHANDRAN INTERVIEW

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“SOMETIMES, KAMAL DOES TALK ABOUT RESTARTING MARUDHANAYAGAM” – RAVI K CHANDRAN

Interview Team : Sudharshan; Venkat

In the second part of this conversation with veteran cinematographer, Ravi K Chandran, Sudharshan Giridhar gets him to talk in detail about his maiden directorial venture, Yaan and the most anticipated film of all time, Marudhanayagam.
 

(In case you had missed the first part, here it is - “I Wonder If I’d Have Made A Better Realtor” – Ravi K Chandran)


PHOTOS & STILLS - GALLERY




Yaan…

I wrote the script of Yaan years back. I had given the script to a lot of actors including Suriya, Abhishek Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor. But I didn’t follow it up. Even while working with Suriya in 7aam Arivu, I never spoke to him about the script.


Later, KV Anand warned me that no one was going to sign me up if I do not start pushing the actors. He suggested that I stop doing cinematography for a while and concentrate on my direction.


Then I met Jiiva, told him the story and he immediately agreed to do it.

KV Anand warned me that no one was going to sign me up if I do not start pushing the actors.

We heard, you went on a long cruise for composing... Tell us about that...

Yeah… The cruise covered New York, Miami, Cuba, Mexico and Caribbean Islands in a span of 10 days.
 

Harris apparently has a habit of going for a world tour for composing. Initially, I found it absolutely needless and waste of money, but when I spent the time with him in the cruise, it was amazing to see how the new ambience and various cultures influenced his music. In fact, he had brought his family to the trip, but he didn’t spend much time with them. His entire mind was on Yaan’s music. The trip also made us great friends and we both understood each other’s requirements very well.   

Harris apparently has a habit of going for a world tour for composing. Initially, I found it absolutely needless and waste of money.

 

Jiiva and Thulasi…

Following the generation of Ajith, Vijay, Suriya and the rest, Jiiva and Dhanush, I think, are two of the finest young actors of today.
 

When I told Jiiva about Yaan, not only he agreed to do the project, but he also believed in the script completely. That made it easy for me in terms of getting the work done. 


Unlike the template heroines of Tamil cinema, Tulasi has a part on par with Jiiva. She plays a matured, level headed girl. Her role is similar to that of Jyothika’s part in Khakha Khakha. 


While Jiiva is playing a young and flamboyant man, who’s just finished his MBA, Thulasi plays a daughter of an Army official.

 

What can we expect from Yaan?

It’ll be a very good cinema. We’ve put a lot of efforts. I wouldn’t call it a path breaking movie or a trend setter, s to speak. But I can assure you that the experience will be new.


Yaan is definitely not a realistic film. I don’t like realistic films. We all live in a fantasy world of our own. We like to imagine ourselves as someone else at times and imagine doing things that we do not do in our daily lives. Whether we are capable of doing those in reality, no one knows.


Cinema is an art that allows you to translate your imaginations onto the screen. Yaan is one such translation.


See… Every director works hard with a motive of making a good film. The audience might not react the way we want them to at certain places. But they may also surprise us by reacting differently. That surprise element is every director’s reward. This unpredictability of the audiences is what keeps us moving forward.
 

It’s a dangerous gamble that we take. But the human tendency is to take the extra risk. Why do you think our film heroes always fall in love with villains’ daughters? Every time there’s a weird sound outside our door that we know is bad, don’t we step out to check it out? Risk is what keeps us on the edge. It gives us the extra push that we need. 

Risk is what keeps us on the edge


The locations where you have shot Yaan…

Hyderabad, Mumbai, Morocco, Rajasthan and various other places. It’s a Mumbai based story, so we’ve shot major portions there. We are also planning to go to another foreign location for a song shoot. 

 

How do you pick your cinematographers?

I wanted someone who has worked with me long enough, so that I didn’t have to waste my time and budget on explaining what I want.  Manush Nandhan was my assistant and my natural choice.
 

Since Yaan seemed to take a lot of time, I recommended him to Farah Khan. Manush is now working on Farah’s Happy New Year starring Sharukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan.  

Manush is now working on Farah’s Happy New Year starring Sharukh Khan and Abhishek Bachchan.  

 

We heard you are doing another film with Jiiva…

Yes, I’ve signed up another film with Jiiva. It’ll be bankrolled by a Mumbai based production house and it’ll be a Hindi-Tamil bilingual. The script is all ready. A Bollywood star will play Jiiva’s part in Hindi. We’ll go on floors as soon as Yaan is done. But, I’m guessing Tamil will be done first and could even release before the Hindi version. 

 

The new lesson the direction has taught you…

Yaan taught me to remain patient about various stupidities. You have to remain patient, because you have no other choice and mostly people don’t know what runs through the director’s mind, neither the director understand why there is so much stupidity around him. So Yaan taught me to keep calm and wait till everything you wanted is achieved.
 

I don’t like to be hurried. I want my film to be perfect. I want to make films that remain in the memory of the people for a very long time. A mindless comedy might make much better business today than a quality film like Aboorva Sagotharargal. But, years later, people will always choose to watch the quality films. Films like Nayagan, Kannathil Muthamittal are the kind of films I’m talking about. Even today people watch and appreciate these movies.

Films like Nayagan, Kannathil Muthamittal are the kind of films I’m talking about. Even today people watch and appreciate these movies.

 

How do you gauge the success of a director?

The biggest challenge for any director is to survive in the industry for a long time. According to today’s standards, a director can be considered successful, only if he can survive in the industry for more than a decade and it is definitely not easy. How many directors have done that? Why do you think even today Shankar, Mani Ratnam, KS Ravikumar and AR Murugadoss remain on the top? Before their generation, it was Bharathiraja and Balachander. They are legends.


Shankar, Mani Ratnam and the rest still rule the industry because, they grow with the technology. They adapt themselves very quickly to the current trends.


Take Martin Scorcese for instance… He is 71 and he comes up with something as brilliant as Wolf of Wall Street. His Hugo was a 3D movie, made using Alexa camera. The technology was new back then. Scorcese pulled it off and managed to bag five Oscars. Clint Eastwood is 84 and he still makes amazing movies. These film makers grow with the technology and that is the secret of their success.


Cinema is a medium that grows every day and reinventing self is the only way for every director to sustain. Cinema has also become accessible to everyone, which makes the medium highly competitive.                 
 

Take me for example. I’ve been in the industry for movie than 25 years and even today people call me to work in projects like 2 States. PC Sreeram could work in Ai, because he keeps himself updated. With age, his intelligence and mastery grows. 

Shankar, Mani Ratnam and the rest still rule the industry because, they grow with the technology. 

The biggest difference between the Bollywood and Kollywood…

As far as the North, no hero gives you an appointment, unless you have a fully bound script. No matter how big a director you are, you need to have a fully written script to meet an actor. But I don’t think everyone practices this down South. Shankar gave me a full script, Kamal showed me the complete script of Marudhanayagam and Mani Ratnam always does it. 

 

Will Marudhanayagam do well at the BO if it releases today?

Absolutely… Suriya called me one day and said, ‘What a work sir!’ I asked him what was he talking about and he said Kamal sir showed him some footage from Marudhanayagam. That will be the reaction of people if they watch it today. The film cannot look dated.


But unfortunately, a lot of scenes and concepts that Kamal incorporated in Marudhanayagam, later appeared in a lot of Hollywood movies. We used to complain that the western makers have copied from us. Although we were shocked, it made us happy that the concepts we created for Marudhanayagam won Oscars, when they appeared in those Hollywood films. 

Unfortunately, a lot of scenes and concepts that Kamal incorporated in Marudhanayagam, later appeared in a lot of Hollywood movies

 

Will Marudhanayagam be re-launched?

Budget was the major problem that forced us to drop the film back then. We brought thousands of horses, elephants and thousands of people for the film. Today, it is comparatively easier to do the movie. We have a stronger technology to support and CG has gone to such height that almost anything is possible today.
 

Back then, we had to spend crores of rupees just to do the tests. Imagine the time and money involved in managing and dressing up thousands of actors at the same time. Even we couldn’t quiet imagine the magnitude of the project that we undertook. That was also one of the reasons the project couldn’t be continued. We managed to shoot 15% of the movie before shelving it.
 

Sometimes, Kamal does suggest restarting Marudhanayagam. I guess the right time hasn’t come yet. But I’m hoping it happens soon.  

Even we couldn’t quiet imagine the magnitude of the Marudhanayagam


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