Story is
what a film needs, not a message
He is one of
our biggest commercial directors, yet AR Murugadoss remains an unassuming
personality. Currently busy with the last-minute work on SPYder, the director
spoke to Chennai Times exclusively on the idea behind the film, making his
first bilingual with Mahesh Babu, comparison of his villain with Joker, and why
we are still reluctant towards having heroines as the leads. Excerpts:
All your
films have one core idea behind them, like sleeper cells in Thuppakki and
farmers' suicide in Kaththi. What is the idea behind SPYder?
The initial
idea for the script came out of the character of the hero. I am intrigued by
our humanity or the lack of it. When does this humanity within us come out? For
example, when there is a flood, on Day 1 of food shortage, we want to hoard
things for ourselves. However, when the situation worsens, we band together and
start caring for each other. Why is that we cannot empathise when there is a
need, but discover the feeling when the need becomes so desperate?
Since you
mention flood, did this thought come about following the 2015 Chennai floods?
It is not
just the Chennai floods, but also two or three incidents that occurred around
that period.
Do you think
we have become less compassionate?
I would not
say that. I am intrigued about how we suddenly start empathising more and
suddenly do not care. We seem to be in a dilemma — when should we be
empathetic? On one hand, we board trains to fight for a single person, and on
the other, we merely take videos when we see injustice in front of our eyes.
Why are we behaving in such extreme fashion? One day, we celebrate a person and
call her the voice of the jallikattu protest, and soon, throw her down. Why are
we quick to rush to judgments? We have tried to look at this issue
psychologically. However, this message does not come as a lecture; those who
look for it will feel it. Otherwise, the film is pure drama involving a hero, a
villain, and revenge, narrated as a fast-paced thriller.
Does a film
really need to have a message?
Story is
what a film needs, not a message. Today, everyone is saying some message or the
other all the time. People keep getting advice on WhatsApp — one guy urges them
to eat oats saying it is healthy, while another tells them to avoid oats
because it is unhealthy. People are fed-up of messages. Messages have become
cheap. Conveying a message is never my intention, though I am particular about
not sending out a wrong message. My goal is to narrate a story. Anyone who
comes to my film is giving me a precious two-and-a-half hours of their life to
me, and I want to keep them entertained for that duration and give them an
experience they can savour.
Coming back
to this film, why did you want to make it as a bilingual? Is it because of
Mahesh?
Actually,
Mahesh Babu and I had discussed the possibility of us doing a film together 10
years ago. Somehow, that kept getting delayed. I was also tied up with my Tamil
and Hindi projects. One day, I decided I should do a Tamil-Telugu bilingual.
Almost every film of mine has been dubbed in Telugu, and remade in Hindi, and I
wanted to do a Tamil-Telugu bilingual where every artiste speaks in both these
languages in the respective versions. I decided to approach Mahesh. He was also
interested and that is how we started. With Mahesh, I know Telugu and he knows
Tamil, so there was never a problem.
Everyone in
this team knew both Tamil and Telugu, so we were comfortable shooting both the
versions. This was easier than how I felt while directing my Hindi film, though
was almost like shooting two films. The market in Telugu is also huge. I am a
recognisable director here and he is a superstar there, so a bilingual film
widens its business.
Do you think
bilinguals are the way forward for big-budget films?
Definitely.
People have gone beyond the faces on screen and are appreciating the content in
films. People in the B and C centres are watching dubbed Korean serials these
days. Our films are being talked about at the international level; the Chinese
are responding to Indian films. People are connecting with the emotions, and
language has stopped being a barrier, which is great for us, as filmmakers.
There is very little difference in the business of our films and Bollywood
films. Combine the Tamil and Telugu market and we are even bigger than the
market for Hindi films. You also get the freedom to make the film on a bigger
budget, and think wide in terms of subject.
Speaking
about people moving beyond faces, you have been doing films only with top
stars. Why is that?
Every
filmmaker wants to work with big stars, but many do not get the opportunity. I
got a chance to direct a star in my first film itself, and the offers that
followed resulted in me doing films with big stars. I do want to do
small-budget films, and the work they demand is the same as what the films that
I am doing now demand. In fact, the responsibility increases when one does a
small-budget film. For a star film, you have people who will support the
project in one way or the other, from the hero to the music director to the
cameraman.
Your
previous film, Akira, had a female as the lead. Why is that we are not able to
consistently see females as the leads in Tamil?
There have
been successful attempts earlier; people lined up to see Vijayshanti's films.
We have failed to cultivate the habit of buying a ticket to a film just for the
heroine. Heroines, too, want to be projected glamorously when they start out.
They want to dance and romance. They are wary of taking up heavy subjects, as
it might give them a certain image. Somehow, it has been established that
heroines can lead a film only when they have married or have reached a certain
age. There is also another reason, if you dig deeper. A heroine is needed today
for 30-40 days for a film, and they can afford to act in three to four films a
year. How many will be ready to do just one film a year? During the initial
years, it is only by acting in many films that they can make an income. For
them, it is easier to allot a few days, dance for the songs and move on to the
next film. This is why many heroines do not dub for themselves even though they
can speak Tamil. Dubbing involves effort and takes about a week to 10 days.
Combine the dubbing dates of three films, and you can shoot an additional film
in that time. Men and women are equal in our present social set-up. Take my own
case. I was the only boy growing up along with three sisters, so I was
pampered. Today, my daughter is the one who decides what meal we will be eating
next. It is necessary that we make heroine-centric films. When that begins to
happen, there is even a chance for those films to be more creative, because, by
nature, women are more responsible; they will want to prove themselves.
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