Chennaibest speaks to Revathi about
her latest venture, My Friend - Mitr, with which she has
made her first foray in Direction. She is popular for the strong
characters that she played, which almost always had a slight feminist
bend to them. She has come a long way after her debut in director,
Bharatiraja's 'Man vaasanai'. Revathi speaks about Mitr,
about her all-women crew, about television and cinema in general...
Why did you choose to do this movie in English?
As
far as I am concerned, the art of filmmaking has no language. It’s
just the language, which is spoken in the film. And of course, the
tradition, the culture, everything changes according to the language.
I have been going very frequently to the US lately, I saw a lot
of interesting instances that touched me. I saw this movie called
Hyderabad Blues and there seems to be a different kind of trend,
there is an interesting trend towards Indian English Films. The
kind of films that I would like to make suited the language and
I am very comfortable with the language. It seemed easier in a sense,
but hard in a different way, because marketing is a totally different
thing. If I had made a Tamil film, marketing would have been much
easier than what it is now. When Priya (the story writer
for Mitr) told us the subject, it was for a tele film, but both
Suresh and myself, felt that it was very interesting and
it could make a very interesting feature film. And this is the kind
of subject that we were looking for. The subject itself suits the
English language. Its about a family in the US, we felt instead
of making the Americans speak in Tamil, might as well make the movie
in English.
Was the movie completely shot in the US?
About 90% was shot in the US. The film begins at
Chidambaram, so that portion was shot in India, the rest in the
US.
What was the experience working with an all
women crew? Did you consciously go about getting an all-women crew
or things just fell into place?
I
did not specifically look for an all women crew in the first place.
It is Priya's story, Sudha is a screenplay writer in our
company, I had heard of Fowzia (cinematographer)through a
couple of friends and she is P C Srirams's assistant. The
four of us came together in the beginning; it was only the rest
of them that I actually looked for. It just happened that we were
looking for a new music director, I heard of Bhavatharini,
that she was doing her album, had a meeting with her, and thought
it would be interesting to work with her. Then editor, Bina Paul
came into the picture. A friend of mine Prabha, along with
Usha is doing the costumes for the film. It's actually a
group of friends put together and Bhavatharini and Bina Paul and
now Geeta for the sound has come into it. The effort was
only towards the end. When I started looking for a music director,
I said why not look for a woman music director. I thought this would
be encouraging for other girls to enter the technical side of films.
There are a lot of actresses and singers, but in the technical side
there are very few women.
So do you feel, it would have been difficult,
if you had consciously gone about looking for women technicians?
Actually the Tamil Film industry is a lot more
open. There are a lot of girls in the Tamil film industry. It's
just that in the cinematography side and photography side, there
are very few girls. Fowzia happens to be an experienced person,
P C Sriram is very confident about her work. Now, I am very happy
after seeing the film. In the editorial side also, there are very
few women editors. But Beena is pretty well known. Only Beena and
Tamarai (who has written the lyrics) are experienced people
in the whole crew. All the others are doing it as the chief technician
for the first time. Geeta has been working with Mr Sridhar of
Media Artists for a very long time. It is time for her also
to do some independent work. So all of us just came together.
As
far as I am concerned, the art of filmmaking has no language. It’s
just the language, which is spoken in the film. And of course, the
tradition, the culture, everything changes according to the language.
I have been going very frequently to the US lately, I saw a lot
of interesting instances that touched me. I saw this movie called
Hyderabad Blues and there seems to be a different kind of trend,
there is an interesting trend towards Indian English Films. The
kind of films that I would like to make suited the language and
I am very comfortable with the language. It seemed easier in a sense,
but hard in a different way, because marketing is a totally different
thing. If I had made a Tamil film, marketing would have been much
easier than what it is now. When Priya (the story writer
for Mitr) told us the subject, it was for a tele film, but both
Suresh and myself, felt that it was very interesting and
it could make a very interesting feature film. And this is the kind
of subject that we were looking for. The subject itself suits the
English language. Its about a family in the US, we felt instead
of making the Americans speak in Tamil, might as well make the movie
in English.
I
did not specifically look for an all women crew in the first place.
It is Priya's story, Sudha is a screenplay writer in our
company, I had heard of Fowzia (cinematographer)through a
couple of friends and she is P C Srirams's assistant. The
four of us came together in the beginning; it was only the rest
of them that I actually looked for. It just happened that we were
looking for a new music director, I heard of Bhavatharini,
that she was doing her album, had a meeting with her, and thought
it would be interesting to work with her. Then editor, Bina Paul
came into the picture. A friend of mine Prabha, along with
Usha is doing the costumes for the film. It's actually a
group of friends put together and Bhavatharini and Bina Paul and
now Geeta for the sound has come into it. The effort was
only towards the end. When I started looking for a music director,
I said why not look for a woman music director. I thought this would
be encouraging for other girls to enter the technical side of films.
There are a lot of actresses and singers, but in the technical side
there are very few women.
