Q: As far as our Malayalam cinema is concerned, majority of the directors take films based on other writers’ script. But in Tamil industry, the directors are coming up with their own script. In your opinion, can a director with his own script shapes up a better movie? or a director-writer combo can help in polishing the entire movie due to the team effort?
A: I cannot say a specific answer that director with his own script may be better than director-writer combo or vice versa. It purely depends. For example Alfred Hitchcock is a world famous director who never wrote script for his films, all his films were made on other writers’ scripts. Another one is Roman Polanski, who made fantastic films like China Town based on others’ scripts. As you mentioned the case of Tamil directors, there are many directors in malayalam who write their own scripts.
Bharathan, Sethu Madhavan, I V Sasi, Joshi etc made excellent films on others scripts. In this generation, Roshan Andrews, Lal Jose etc work on others’ script but Blessy directs with his own script. If there are good films in Tamil with directors’ script, there are many world classics based on director-writer combo. So we cannot say that a director with his own script is a better practice over the other. On considering my case, Roshan and I have almost identical mentality. When our ideas get exchanged, it provides more output. Then why should we give up such a team.
Q: Do you have a plan to direct a film in future?
A: Script writing and direction are different faculties. So if there comes a question whether a script writer can become a director, I cannot answer it now. Right now I am not having a dream of becoming a director. I think I need some more improvement in this faculty(writing). I will try direction only when I feel that I cannot stay away from it anymore. Sometimes it may happen in future.
Q: What about your tele serial Avicharitham- a 40 episode serial came in Asianet with your father played the lead role and handled a sensitive subject like extra marital affair and it won the state award for best script. Notebook also handled a sensitive subject like teenage pregnancy. Both the projects were handled well without losing its soul and both these works gave a message to the society. Is the selection of these sensitive subjects intentional?
A: There is no intentional thoughts that my films must handle only sensitive subjects. But I usually get attracted by the stories which people fear to tell. So there are many such stories which have a chance to be made into a serial or cinema. I cannot say that its courage to shape-up movies with such untold subjects. In my opinion, there is no need to hesitate to tell such sensitive stories. Extra marital affairs are becoming very common in the cosmo politan culture, where husbands and wives become unsatisfied in a family. I am not mentioning the physical pleasure. The most important is the unity and satisfaction of minds. Physical pleasures and its importance are in a very much exaggerated form in our society. In Avicharitham, the lead character Aravinda menon’s wife is not ready to share his articles or creativity. That makes him to get attracted to another woman who can creatively criticize his works. I decided to do this serial only because we got a promise from Asianet that it can be ended in 40 episodes. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done a mega serial.
Q: Was there any suggestions or opinion from your father for Avicharitham’s story?
A: Actually there was no suggestions from him for the story development. But he was very keen in his character’s journey in the serial. He would indicate doubts in some situations about some dialogs, and it demanded a lot of explanations for the situations.
Q: Then, your new project is Casanova, again teaming up with director Roshan and Mohanlal in the lead. What is the theme of it? Can you please give a one liner about it.
A: Actually Casanova is a man who lived in Italy long time ago. It is not sure whether he is only a fictitious character. Casanova was a man who won the love of almost 120 women in his life. Casanova is a symbol of love and romance. The Casanovas are there in all the times. We can identify many Casanovas among our society. So our new movie is about such a person who loved and won the love of many women. More than a love story, it will be a story of love. The shooting may start after mid 2008.
Q: Why did you choose Mohanlal for Casanova’s lead role? Do his character has more importance than the story?
A: He is the best actor in India. When the character Casanova is born, we thought he would be the most suitable actor for it. We think that he can handle the role much better than any other actor. As a film maker, I would like to create a film which I love to watch it in theater. I assess the story development as a viewer first. I can write a scene only which i like to see it on screen. So a film becomes successful and gives biggest satisfaction when my taste and the viewers taste meet. I can say that the lead character of Casanova is not a super human. But he is a person who attracted many women. For normal people like us, its very difficult to attract atleast a single woman in our life. So Casanova has something special in his personality to attract that much women.The film’s story and Mohanlal’s character will have equal importance.
Q: Earlier, I heard that there was a movie planned by Roshan-Suresh Gopi team named Womaniser. It didn’t happen. Is Casanova the same project.
A: No no. That was entirely a different story. That has no connection with Casanova. Actually Womaniser was only a temporary name for that Roshan project.
Q: Your previous film was with Roshan Andrews. Now the upcoming two films are also with Roshan. Do you feel that he is the best director whom you can work with and has a better chemistry?
A: I was very comfortable in working with Siby Malayil. And it was a good experience to work with him. As I told earlier, we had worked together as Kamal sir’s assistants. More than as a director, he is a very good friend of mine. We used to discuss all the matters which are related and non-related to cinema. And it is very nice and comfortable to work with a close friend. Both of us have the freedom to tell anything openly. When I suggest a scene, and if it is not upto mark, then he can instantly tell that its a boring one. And me too have that freedom. This freedom can make the work more smooth and comfortable.
Q: In malayalam industry, movies with young actors in the lead are not frequent. Notebook had entirely new faces. When will you do another youth film with the young stars of Malayalam?
A: Youngsters films are inevitable for our industry. I would say that its the fault/disability of the film makers of malayalam including me, that movies of young generation are not getting made frequently. First we have to develop or reach to a youngsters story and we should be sure that the particular story suits the young actors. There is no point in making a youngsters movie without a suitable story for it. Majority of the young actors in malayalam are really talented. They have to get utilized well. Youngsters project will be there in the near future, and we are in search for such a story.
Q: Do you think that the young actors are not getting utilised well by the film makers?
A: Exactly.They are not getting the characters that demands their full caliber. Mammootty and Mohanlal got powerful characters in the starting time of their career and they got the opportunity to work with class film makers. Mammooty’s popular films “Thrishna”, “Koodevide” etc are good examples. But today’s young actors are not getting that opportunity. They can do only the characters which they get. There is not happening a sincere effort from the film makers to utilize these youngsters’ skills.
Q: There is an unanswered question in Notebook. Who wrote that letter to Saira?
A: (Laughs). I am not ready to reveal that suspense. If I reveal it, that will be a betrayal towards that cinema. The answer is there in the movie itself and you can find it if you watch the movie closely. If one says its written by Suraj, that interpretation is true. If another man feels that its written by Suresh Gopi or Seetha, that is also true. Its upto the audience to find a solution for themselves.
Q: The number of private TV channels have increased a lot in this decade. Do you think that these channels and the mega serial culture have kept away the audience from the theater?
A: I know that when the serial “Sthree” was a hit, the attendance of first shows were affected. But even if a serial is so much good, and there is a film like Classmates in theater, its first shows will not be affected. Now the living standards of people are improved a lot. Majority of them are not ready to watch a film in a C-class theater which does not have AC or DTS. Even common people are expecting that the theater’s seats should be good, projection must be good, sound system should be good and many more. This is also a major factor in deserting the C-class and B-class theaters.
Q: Can you please describe your writing procedure of the script.
A: First of all the story discussion will take place after getting the main thread. This part is very important. My ideas and director’s ideas get exchanged and we develop the scene-order. In this discussion, the plot gets a full form and we fixes the scene order. That time I make some rough notes. But the rough notes are not necessary. Casanova is having 60 scenes. Without referring anything, I can memorize all these 60 scenes right now. So when the scene-order is complete and fixed, I starts writing scenes from the beginning. It include the dialogs also. I write a scene, by speaking the dialogs myself and self analyses the dialogs whether it suits the mood and situation. After writing the particular scene, I re-write it by omitting and adding some points. Then writes that scene once more. In total, I write a scene three times. The same procedure will be followed for all the scenes in the scene-order. If I feel a scene is boring while writing it, I stops/give up that scene right there and tries for another one, may be written only after discussing with the director. All writers are not having identical methods, there will be changes in the procedure.
Q: Which is your next movie after Casanova? Is it a Mammootty project?
A: Ya, my next film has Mammootty in the lead. The director is Roshan himself. This film will be a thriller. I cannot reveal more about the film now.
Q: Now the other language films are invading Kerala. More Hindi films re becoming successful here, so as Tamil too. More Telugu dubbed movies are coming in. Do you believe that this invasion will be a threat to our movies?
A: In my opinion, we must take this as a challenge. Taare Zameen Par is a super hit here. People are going for these films because it gives more quality than our current movies. Our commercial cinema must improve to compete with movies like Taare Zameen Par . On that occasion, we cannot say that other language films are a threat.
Q: What about your family.
A: Bobby is my elder brother. He is married and settled in Bangalore. I have a younger sister too. She is also married and in Singapore. I am settled here with my wife(Kowdiyar, Trivandrum). She is working in Radio Mirchi. Actually my parent family is in Kottayam.
Nik: Thanks a lot sir, for sharing your views and points and allowing an interview for a non-professional like me. Best wishes for your future projects.