Mani: Still feel like a beginner
His credentials as a filmmaker are well established and he is on the wishlist of top Bollywood stars, but Mani Ratnam still feels like a newcomer before the release of his each film.
The Tamil director is awaiting the release of his bilingual film Raavan on Friday. “I am not worried about the craze and expectations from others. I just want to get the film right and do as good as I can. I feel as pressurised as a beginner before every release,” Ratnam told PTI.
The 54-year-old director, who made films like Roja, Dil Se, Bombay and Guru, which garnered both critical acclaim and box office success said that he often turns to his writers and actors for help while making a film in Hindi. “I trust the writer when he says something will not sound right in Hindi. I ask him how would it sound right. I trust the actor and discuss it with him. So we discover many things together,” said Ratnam.
The director, fondly called Mani sir, feels that making a film in Hindi is a liberating experience because he lets go of the control. “In Tamil, I hold more reins and control while in Hindi, I trust the other persons more so it becomes a liberating experience,” said the filmmaker.
Ratnam described making Raavan which stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram, in Hindi and Tamil simultaneously as a “huge task”. “I am an instinctive filmmaker and the challenge is not to let go totally the instinct while directing a scene in two different languages. Once you finish a shot you can’t move on to the next shot immediately. The tempo just changes,” he said.
Ratnam, who has given Abhishek Bachchan hits like Yuva and Guru, does not think that the upswing in the actor’s career is due to him. “I have not done anything drastic for Abhishek. I just made him play a character which is close to him. Since Yuva, Abhishek has grown as an actor by leaps and bounds,” he said. “As a filmmaker you are selfish, you want what is right for your film. If I think Abhishek can do a role well and if he is equally interested, then we do it together. It is simple.” Ratnam said in all the three films he has done with Abhishek so far, he had given the actor drastically different characters and each time he has delivered.
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