- 5/22/2025
Mumbai: In an in-depth conversation with IANS, veteran actor Kamal Haasan and acclaimed director Mani Ratnam discussed their collaboration on the upcoming Tamil-language gangster action drama 'Thug Life'. The duo shared their working dynamics, delving into scene development, narrative crafting, and character pitching. Mani Ratnam also revealed exciting details about the film's teaser. Additionally, they reflected on their fruitful partnership with music maestro A. R. Rahman and exchanged thoughts on the impact of artificial intelligence and technological advancements in the film industry. Kamal Haasan also fondly shared his cherished memories of working on 'Sadma'.
#KamalHaasan #ManiRatnam #ThugLife #TamilCinema #GangsterDrama #ActionFilm #IANSInterview #SceneDevelopment #NarrativeCrafting #CharacterPitching #FilmTeaser #ARRahman #MusicCollaboration #AIinCinema #FilmTechnology #Sadma #VeteranActor #AcclaimedDirector #FilmmakingInsights #CinematicLegacy #Southcinema
#KamalHaasan #ManiRatnam #ThugLife #TamilCinema #GangsterDrama #ActionFilm #IANSInterview #SceneDevelopment #NarrativeCrafting #CharacterPitching #FilmTeaser #ARRahman #MusicCollaboration #AIinCinema #FilmTechnology #Sadma #VeteranActor #AcclaimedDirector #FilmmakingInsights #CinematicLegacy #Southcinema
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FunTranscript
00:00Welcome to ANS. First of all, congratulations for Thug Life that's about to release.
00:05I can already feel the weight of the legacy in front of me that's there.
00:10I want to ask both of you that you last worked together in Nikon, which was 1987, almost 40 years to that.
00:17The world has drastically changed. I was not even born in 1987 to start.
00:22As an actor director fair, how has the working style between the two of you changed and how you have changed as human beings?
00:30We have changed, both of us from that time, because of the experience and the problems we face.
00:38It has taught us much more than book reading or any institute could teach us.
00:45What actually happens in the battlefield is the greatest training and that's what we have been having all these years.
00:52So, we are the improved version of the same brand.
01:00Okay, okay. And sir?
01:02I've lost all my hair.
01:04Yeah, I think in a way it's the same and it's very, very different.
01:10So, it is a bit of both. There is a sense of comfort, a sense of familiarity, a sense of trust.
01:16But you realize that you can't settle on that. We have to keep pushing for more. We have to try to do some better than that.
01:24So, it's the same and different.
01:27Okay. And when you two come together, you know, two titans of our Indian cinema, you know, which we are very proud of.
01:34What's the jamming between the two of you, like the discussions about the scene, about the narrative, about the pitching of the character?
01:41How does it all transpire and then move forward in the narrative? Anyone?
01:45See, cinema has become a language. We are, I don't know how fluent we are in that, but we speak it.
01:55And we are improving. Like we've lost the slur that we had. We've got that baby talk that we had. All that is gone now.
02:07But we are still, I think, work in progress. I'm just telling him about something else. So, we are still work in progress.
02:18And what are the discussions generally like when you two meet?
02:20As I was telling you, the language is cinema. So, if I tell, talk of a director, he knows which way the scene will take.
02:29If I talk of a film, I know what mood he is talking about.
02:34We could almost guess he is going towards day or night, where he is going to shoot it.
02:40Okay. Because the stimuli for us comes from our forefathers.
02:45Yeah. In this field.
02:47Absolutely. Absolutely. And sir?
02:49Yeah. I think it's more or less similar in the sense that when you are working together and there is a sense that it becomes complimentary.
03:10You know, there is something that you bring in. And when an actor brings something else, in this case, he is both a writer and actor.
03:17And he makes the lines that is there very believable, very real and fitting the character. And that pushes you again.
03:25Yeah. So, it's kind of gross. And most of the conversations are like that. You know, you have something and he has something more and then you build on that.
03:34So, it kind of nice, comfortable doubles partnership.
03:39Okay. And talking about that, sir, taking that further, you are an institution in yourself. You do everything. You are an institution in yourself, a cinematic institution, acting, writing, direction, everything.
03:50When you work with him, for example, in Thug Life, do you purposely switch off the writer or the director in you or you rely fully on him?
04:01Every faculty should be on. He should not switch off the actor in him. Because he sometimes tells me to tuck my stomach in. Because I had put on weight at that time.
04:17And so, that is the weight you must have been feeling when you said weight of legacy. I am lost it now. I don't carry that weight at all.
04:29No. So, when you say that, you can't switch off anything. That's why I said in future, in another interview, I said in future, what we both are doing, one man will do.
04:41What four of us are doing, one man will do. Absolutely. Because the tools will make it easy. The carpenter in the times of Jesus and the carpenter of today are two different species.
04:55Absolutely. And so, I saw the teaser once again. I saw it back in November. I saw it once again. There's a very peculiar shift in the color temperature in the teaser.
05:05It starts off with cool frames. And when he makes his entry, you know, it's more of towards green, yellow, green. If you could walk me through the visual process of the film, how it was all put together, the DI and the everything, the lensing and everything.
05:19I think overall we are storytellers, you know, and you use every tool that is available to you to tell the story.
05:30I think visual language is a language and you try to use it to tell it. It has to be realistic, but it still should aid in setting up the mood, in having a clean progression through the film.
05:44It can't just keep going up and down. So, to that extent, it's not just me or just him. It is the entire team. You know, I mean, it is a production designer.
05:53It's a cameraman. It is the editor. All of them and the music that comes with it kind of sets the thing. So, that is the arc that you take.
06:01It is not necessarily just looking at say, I move from cold to warm. It's not that. It is how the story goes. And you let the narrative decide all these elements.
06:12Okay, okay. And so, the audience has literally seen you grow on cellulite. Very few actors have that privilege. If in Indian cinema, if I talk about Rishi Kapoor, sir, was one.
06:23Leonardo DiCaprio is one in the international cinema. When you have such monumental experience, such a huge body of work behind you, carving every minute details like Michelangelo, is it still possible to be a student of the cinema?
06:36If yes, then how can the younger generation cultivate that bent of mind?
06:41When can you? What are you asking? Student of cinema? After what?
06:46So, I mean, given that monumental experience behind you, is it still possible to be a student of cinema and have that learning streak?
06:53Cinema is improving so fast and so many tools are coming in. The only safest place is to be a student and not start teaching.
07:07What we believe might be trampled upon, but still we have to believe because we are captives of this time and these ideas. We reflect it.
07:18Okay. So, no shame in it. Like Mr. K. Asif is equal to Mr. Sathya Jitre to me.
07:27There will be two different films. There will be one school of people who will say that, how can you do that? That's Mughalyazam. This is Pater Panchani.
07:37Okay. And, sir, talking about the music, we have again Mr. A. R. Eman collaborating with you. I have always been fascinated by what the discussions go on between the two of you. Such a fine legacy.
07:50I know Rosa. There's many, many more films that I can't remember as of it, but of course we know all those films. When you sit down to share the ideas with him or let's say you brief him on a scene or a situation or a mood.
08:03What all goes between the two of you? What's his reception like and what's your directive to him to construct a scene or a situation?
08:11Yeah, I think Raman in a way is an enigma. It is not necessarily that you have to set a mood for him. He doesn't necessarily take only a scene or this one or a situation.
08:23He knows the feel for the whole film. And he starts thinking of the music scape for the entire film. So, it is slightly broader. And within that, he is somebody who is still searching.
08:36He is not somebody who is settled and says, I can give you whatever you want. He doesn't give me what I want. He gives something more. He also gives what he wants to give.
08:47So, it is a question of us finding a common ground. That's what it is.
08:53This certainly reminded me of Hans Zimmer and Christopher Nolan. They were working on the Batman trilogy and he made a soundscape out of it and then they kind of tried to squeeze in between the cuts.
09:03Moving forward, sir. This film has biggest of the titans of Hindi cinema. Of course, there is you. There is Trisha Ma'am. There is Pankaj Tripathi, sir. There is Mahesh Manjarekar, sir.
09:17No, Pankaj Tripathi. I wish he was there. He is not there. Pankaj Tripathi. I wish he was there.
09:23Maybe in some other film.
09:25Yeah. So, in a way, Thug Life represents the true India that we have in front of us. When there is such an environment on the set, how does it push the envelope for Indian cinema on the global platform? Anyone can take the lead and start.
09:39Visibly. Also, it doesn't become... We don't feel the G-force at all. You are floating. It is a magic carpet. And you are a passenger. If the carpet is woven with talent.
09:53Absolutely. And sir?
09:56Yeah. It doesn't become an Indian cinema just because you are people. Anything that's made, even in a small village is an Indian cinema. I mean, how does it necessary to...
10:07It is people who are talented coming together for that particular film, for that requirement, you know. So, every film has to have that quality of trying to go across to everyone. So, it is not who is coming from where. That doesn't matter.
10:21Okay. Okay. And we spoke about the technology in the films in the previous question. You spoke about how the entire unit comes together to bring a vision to life in a film. Currently, with the advancement of the artificial intelligence and every other major technological developments that's going on, in your opinion, since you are the pioneers and one with the farsight, how do you see the Indian cinema or cinema in totality, the global cinema changing going forward with all these technologies?
10:50My farsight is poor. That's why I'm wearing glasses. But I think we are on the verge of a change. I mean, huge change. I think I really don't know. You know, we are trying to understand it, but it's going at a tremendous speed. And it opens up a lot of, you know, methods. I mean, both in the making and the way people are viewing. And there, you know, and things that can be collaborated. I mean, it's a lot of, you know,
11:19It moves from games coming into films, films going into games. It is, you know, just in a flux and it's expanding. But in, I feel that in essence, storytelling will remain. It's remained over all these centuries and will continue to remain. Stories are something we learn from. So that will always be there. And when that is there, I think every storyteller has a chance.
11:43Okay. Okay. And so taking that further, you know, I have seen very few moons compared to your legacy, some that you bring to the table.
11:52Is it the first time in cinema that things are moving really at a fast pace and we as human beings, as artists, are just trying to match up to that speed?
12:01What? Cinema?
12:02Yeah. Is it moving at a...
12:03It has always been so.
12:04Yeah. When sound came, the same thing happened. When color came, it happened.
12:08We didn't understand. As a matter of fact, I come from black and white era.
12:11Yeah. So I become slightly nervous when the generation after me talks about hue, colors, sovereignty, this, that. And I think, wait. I'm from black and white cinema. Explain it to me.
12:28Okay. So it's still not, we are not fully in control of color. That's why we tend to appreciate black and white more.
12:38Yeah. Absolutely.
12:39Because we understand it better. That ambit, it's complete. It's already an old technology. So we seem to understand it better.
12:50And how soon will the dust settle, how soon will we be able to grasp things as the artist fraternity? Is it at all possible?
12:57Hope not. Hope it will keep growing and you keep growing. If you grasp everything, then that's the end of it.
13:03That becomes technique.
13:04Hope it's not.
13:05I am very confident about human capacity to forget.
13:12Okay. And perfect. And for my last question, Sir, Sadma is one of my favorite films of yours.
13:19Mine too.
13:19Yeah. I mean, who doesn't love Sadma? So, Sir, this question is for you that, you know, the whole of the film Shri Devi Ma'am dominated.
13:27The entire narrative, the last 10, 8, 10 minutes or so, wherein you come and you take the film and you walk away.
13:36I would want to know.
13:37You can't take a film from a filmmaker like him or Balumendra.
13:41Yeah. So, what he was trying to do is give me a formidable, is actually elevating the protagonist.
13:51Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
13:53So, he let it happen so that it will sink into the audience. They experience the angst, pain and love of the protagonist for which you will have to build.
14:05Yeah. Throughout the narrative.
14:07Throughout the narrative. I think all three of us performed in that film.
14:12Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
14:12It's a compact thing.
14:18And Mr. Balumendra did editing, cinematography, writing.
14:23Writing.
14:23All of it. So, the crew was very small.
14:27So, I can boldly say it was three of us.
14:30Yeah. We all had assistants.
14:33And if you could share the fondest memories of you.
14:36I think it was shot in Ooty, that station sequence, the last sequence.
14:40We both have fond memories of Balum.
14:43And for us, it was comfortable talking to him because one of the early Puna Institute guys who came here and made cinema simple.
14:55He said, come behind the screen.
14:59Yeah.
14:59Come behind the camera.
15:01So, I think it was a good experience.
15:03It's what you learn from a co-student is much more than what you can perceive from a great master teaching him.
15:13Wow.
15:14Because he was, we were both struggling forward.
15:18He was a little elder.
15:19So, it was like walking with an elder brother.
15:23He kept warning you about potholes.
15:27But sometimes he has fallen into it himself.
15:32That's where the growth lies actually.
15:34And I'm tempted to ask one last question.
15:35It's for both of you.
15:36As you mentioned that, you know, Baloo sir was like an elder brother.
15:39In the space of art, how important it is for an artist to feel comfortable?
15:44Or is it not important at all for the growth on an individual level?
15:48Is comfort necessary for an artist's growth or for them to perform better?
15:53Or is the absence of comfort is something that brings growth?
15:56I don't know what you call comfort.
15:59Good health is comfort.
16:01Then gym is a must.
16:04So, an actor should not feel too comfortable.
16:07Okay.
16:07Afterwards, yes.
16:09You can feel comfortable after they all see
16:13the monitor and say, okay, let's go on and agree to agree.
16:19Absolutely.
16:19Yes, sir.
16:20And, sir, closing notes?
16:22Yeah, it's like anything else.
16:24You know, I mean, if there's no black or white.
16:30You have to be comfortable, but still not be too comfortable.
16:33That you should feel that you're seeking more.
16:36You can't, I don't come back each day totally content.
16:40I still feel that I could do better.
16:43That is what pushes you.
16:44So, you need to be comfortable, but not too comfortable.
16:47Too comfortable.
16:47Okay, perfect.
16:49Yeah, well, a lot of various filmmakers and actors have kept saying the same thing,
16:54but it's very difficult to make it as a way of life.
16:59You know, for actors, if you tell them that,
17:05like he says, that you can't be too comfortable.
17:07Yeah.
17:08It seems like selfish and offensive to my profession, but it's not.
17:16Okay, perfect.
17:17So, with that, we have reached the end of this conversation.
17:19If there's anything that I may have been asking as a question
17:21or something that you would have loved to talk about,
17:23please feel free.
17:24No, thank you.
17:25Have a good day.
17:26It was a pleasure and an honor having this conversation.
17:27Oh, it's a chorus.