EDITOR T S SURESH INTERVIEW

My philosophy about editing is that it shouldn’t stand out. It should be natural and hidden. I will try to make it as simple as possible. All elements of a film should be in balance and one aspect shouldn’t dominate the other. In recent times, I quite enjoyed the way films such as Soodhu Kavvum and Kai Po Che were edited.

I always aspire to reach the director’s vision and idea in the best manner possible to the audience. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. There are no regrets at all. This is one big learning process, working with so many directors. It is an enriching experience irrespective of success at the box-office.

Once I sign up for a project and commit to it, there is no backing out of it. We editors work on total trust and place our full belief on the director. We can’t create anything new and just have to better the given product. At times, bad films do happen and we must be ready to accept criticism and take things in our stride.

My first director C.S.Amudhan is motivational and pushes me to come up with something new and out of the box, all the time. He is ready to improvise and is willing to see what the editing tool can do to his final product. I have worked with him in Rendavathu Padam too and am eagerly looking forward to the release of the movie.

I learnt a lot about framing and selecting the best shots and takes from Priyadarshan Sir. I have worked with him on 3 Hindi films, Tezz, Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal and Rangrezz and also in Malayalam films.

Santosh Sivan Sir gives us a free hand and advises us to try out something based on our instinct. He is open to inputs, suggestions and is welcoming of a different perspective. He opened up my interest to photography and arts. I have started interacting with more people for inspiration, after working with Santosh Sivan. Ceylon was like working in my first film again. We tried to change the grammar of film-making and in Ceylon it was raw, rustic with no ‘beauty shots’.

Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi’s Balaji Mohan was an editor himself and he knew what he wanted in terms of style and presentation. My job was made simpler in KSY as he knew exactly what he wanted.

Sonna Puriyadhu’s Krishnan Jayaraj is good at communicating and conversing thanks to his ad-film background. He was a co-director in Thamizh Padam and I was acquainted to him even before working on Sonna Puriyadhu.

I would also like to thank Dhayanidhi Alagiri, Sashikanth, Vikram Anand (an aspiring actor), Sushant and all the directors and producers who have given me an opportunity to work on their films.