AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR SANTHANA BHARATHI

Actor-Director, Santhana Bharathi comes across as a very gentle and jovial person, bearing no resemblance to his formidable on screen persona. Starting his career in 1975, he started working with Director C V Sridhar as an assistant and directed his first film Paneer Pushpangal in 1980. His other successful films include Guna, Kadamai Kaniyam Kattupadu and Mahanadi. Mahanadi won the National Award for the 'Best Regional Film' in 1994. Apart from directing, he also acts in films and television serials. He has acted in around 25 films and television serials so far.

Chennaibest speaks to Santhana Bharathi about his career, Tamil cinema and about Television and its emerging popularity.

Basically I come from a movie background. My father was an actor and a producer. Fortunately or unfortunately, all my friends and college mates belong to this field. Kavignar Kannadasan's son, Radha Ravi, Junior Balayya...all these people were either my classmates in school or college. After my father's sudden demise, I thought why not get into movies, where I know people. I met Kavignar Kannadasan; he introduced me to Director Sridhar. That's how I got into this field. Also, when I was young, wherever I went, they used to say, this is Mr Santhanam's son. That really inspired me. I wanted to be known like that in future. I wanted people to know who I am. I did not want to be just one among the crowd.

Paneer Pushpangal -my first movie and Chinnamappillai among comedies, Guna and Mahanadhi among the serious ones.  I knew that Guna would be successful right from the beginning.  As far as Mahanadhi goes, Kamal has acted very well in this movie. Certain shots that he has given in this movie, I wouldn't have expected even in my wildest dreams. Particularly the scene where his daughter comes to visit him in jail. He told me to continue to take till he gave the cue. Everybody knew the scene, but nobody knew how he was going to do it.  The emotions of a father, his helplessness.... and at the same time the need to hide his feelings from his children was really moving. When the scene got finally over, I had tears in my eyes.

I do not know how I got this brand of a villain... probably because of acting in Karagatakaran or because of my physique; I get to play only the villain's role.  Even if I play a father, I will probably oppose my children. Most of the characters I get are negative.  I like comedy a lot.  Basically, I am a very jovial person and even ask for comedy roles.  I really enjoyed my role in Michael Madana Kamarajan. 

I would not say any particular actor, for me, the actor is not so important.  What is important is the subject.  The character in Guna can be played only by Kamal Haasan and no one else.  For Paneer Pushpangal, I did not want any established faces.  I cast only new comers for this movie.  If for example, I had cast Kamal Haasan as the lead actor, the importance of the subject would be lost; people would look only at Kamal Haasan.  Lots of people cautioned me against using new comers, because I myself was a new comer at that time.  But I felt that for this particular subject, only a new comer would suit.  So when you get an artist who complements your subject, it's really satisfying.  For example, MGR had been doing only action-oriented movies, but Sivaji Ganesan has handled almost everything.  If I have to look at MGR as my lead actor, then my subject will have to change accordingly, but Sivaji can mould himself into any subject.  If I had to cast Rajnikanth, only a commercial subject will come to my mind.  I cannot possibly experiment with him taking any other subject. 

Making a movie means huge investments, people invest in crores.  Finally they have to get the returns for it. You cannot do things, just for the heck of doing it. So I go only by my subject.

If I have to talk about Kamal Haasan, I would say he's an encyclopaedia.  He's a self-made person.  I have known him from my school days, infact I have seen the way he has grown, from the time he first came into films.  He would take the initiative to learn on his own by reading a lot of books, talking to people and by watching movies.  If he speaks about something it wouldn't be out of the hat, his arguments are supported by a lot of reading and learning. Even though he did not have much of a formal education, his knowledge is immmense.

When it comes to movies, he gets totally involved with his character.  Whether he has to put on weight, shed weight, go bald, grow a beard or change his complexion he would do it.  For Guna, he dieted and lost a lot of weight and throughout the movie we see a darker version of him.   For the last scene in Guna where we show him falling down a steep slope, we could have used a rubber dummy, but he insisted that the dummy should look exactly like himself and we moulded a dummy...we went about moulding the dummy part by part, first the hand, then the head, then the neck and so on. For that, he had to sit through for very long hours.  You need a lot of patience for all that.  He's very helpful and cooperative when it comes to that. That's why Indian was such a great success. Once you put on the make-up, you can't even eat till it's taken off.  He wouldn't mind all that, because of the total involvement that he has. 

Lots of people ask me...how come he fights with all other directors but not with you. Well the thing is, any product is a result of teamwork.  If somebody gives a good suggestion, there is nothing wrong in taking it.  Actors like Kamal Haasan will surely bring their inputs to the character and the movie.  For them the movie is more important than anything else.  You have to take it as teamwork rather than personally, otherwise nothing will get done. 

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