The interview which appears below, was originally published on the BBC Asian Life Website website in February 2002. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
Network East presenter and new Asian Life Showbiz reporter Harkirn Bahra met with Mani Ratnam, during his recent visit to the Birmingham Film and Television Festival.
You were a Management Consultant before you came into the film industry. How did the transition happen?
That’s right (giggles) I just jumped, closed my eyes and jumped. No actually I was a consultant for a couple of years working in Madras, in a small Management Consultancy firm and I felt a bit disillusioned with the work that I was doing . At that point in time a friend of mine was making a film, I used to sit with him in the evenings and together we wrote a script, that experience pulled me in I guess.
You have achieved so much in so little time once you got into the industry you established yourself pretty quickly. Do you believe you’ve always had the potential to become a Film Director ?
Well, I think cinema’s like any other language, I mean there are some people who take a liking to a language. I think anybody who’s been watching movies from childhood can become a filmmaker because when s/he is watching and agreeing or disagreeing with the movie, s/he’s a filmmaker within because they are analysing what they see .
You write, produce and direct all your movies. Is that difficult ?
Yeah. It is difficult. I mean I would say to direct a film is difficult, but to make it easier I produce as well then I don’t have to answer to anyone else. Writing I do because there are not enough specialised screen writers in India, so out of necessity writing is becoming an extension to my work.
Your movies are mainly based on real life incidents, do you make movies about issues you are personally effected by ?
You can’t say that a story came from here or there when I make a film I get a very interesting idea and if you’re going to dedicate so much time and energy to it it should be something that matters to you. So you should care enough for it, it should bother you or disturb you or amuse you for the amount of time you put in, you do films mainly about things that you are totally convinced about.
Tell us how your first film Palavi came about ?
Palavi was the first script that I had written. I knew if I wanted to enter the industry as a film director first I had to do an apprentice and then maybe get a break somewhere or I could be a writer, write my script, take it to different producers and convince them that if I can write I can also make a film. I mean you may not be able to do it but you have to convince this man you know what your’re talking about. I preferred the second option, I was not ready to wait for the long road. I had to go around from producer to producer from door to door trying to tell them that I was the best but no one would listen to me for a long time. It was tough but you know that’s the way it goes. Finally a producer said yes but he wanted to do the film in Kannada the language spoken in Karnataka It was a language I had no idea about but that’s the way I got my first break and so I agreed to do it.
You’ve obviously got the gift of the gab to persuade somebody to produce your film, why didn’t you give up when you were getting rejected, what kept you persevering ?
Yeah you know it’s not perseverance with the person, it’s perseverance with your idea, know that if you want to make the film and if you want to make it badly enough, if this person is not smart enough to see your idea then you’ve got to go to someone else. To an extent I think there is a certain amount of luck required but ultimately you have to be smart enough to do a good script.
You have created a concrete and unique partnership with A.R. Rahman. How did you guys meet ?
He was doing a lot of music for ad-films and jingles, I’d met him somewhere and he gave me his demo tape. When I listened to it carefully I realised that you know this was a brilliant piece of music. He had given me an assortment and all of them were terrific really, he is very good at arranging and he has a tremendous maturity in his music so I was very very impressed. I was doing my film Roja, where we were looking for a new music director and A.R. Rahman, was my first choice. I sat with him with the script and we worked on it for about four-eight weeks, he came out with something that was fantastic so then it was not very difficult to persuade producers to go for him.
How important would you say music is to a film?
I think music is as important as any other aspect of a movie. In Indian films it is not only the background score that counts, so music plays a slightly special role in an Indian film because songs have to add on to your project and they have to supplement and become highlights therefore it is a little more important than it is for international filmmakers.
