TAKE TWO: Speech with Spitfire – Gautam Vasudev Menon

Intense. Impatient. Irascible. Immediate. Intimate. Impassioned. But there’s one thing you can never do, to him. Ignore. Pavithra Srinivasan in conversation with the acclaimed Gautam Vasudev Menon

The man really needs no introduction: he’s been touted as the successor to Mani Ratnam, the man who brought passionate romances back in vogue on screen; who brought urban locales, men, women, and their problems into sharp focus; who made it possible for emotions to be right out there; unapologetic, unashamed, and unafraid to be bared. To wear your heart on your sleeve, while still being a macho man who could beat bullies. And best of all – box-office success, even if it was a little sporadic, at times.

Gautam Vasudev Menon is a rolling ball of energy, usually – but these days, perhaps, he’s not really keen on baring his soul to the general public, or the media. Certainly, he sounds impatient when I ask him for an interview. “What do I need to talk about?” he asks, equal parts of impatience and caution. “I’ve said everything that needs to be said.”

But patience, and his own need to share his experiences eventually wins out, and what follows is an explosive conversation on his movies, music, fans, heroines and best of all – himself. Over to the creative spitfire.

What’s your state of mind right now? What project are you working on?

I’m good. I’m doing a trilingual, Neethaane En Ponvasantham.

Care to tell us more about the film? And why is it a trilingual?

There’s no particular reason why – I just think it’s the kind of story that needs to be told, that can be told in three languages. Also, I wanted to work with three actors (laughs). The whole process seems to be interesting. That’s why I’m doing it. I can’t reveal too much about it, but it’s a love story. It’s about two people, and about how they meet up in various moments in life. And finally, do they get to be with each other or not? That’s how it rolls.

You’ve worked with Harris Jeyaraj and A R Rahman in the past. Any reason why you chose music director Ilaiyaraja for your latest venture?

(Pause) Is there any reason why anyone wouldn’t choose to work with him? I mean, come on, I’ve wanted to work with him; I’ve grown up listening to his music, that’s the only reason. I’ve always admired him. I’m a big fan of his work. Many moments in my life have been defined by his music. Just like I wanted to work with Kamal sir at one point, I wanted to work with Raja sir as well.

What happened with Ek Deewana Tha, the Hindi version of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa? The film failed at all levels. What went wrong?

I don’t know – I don’t think people got the film. I think Prateik (Babbar) was a rank newcomer and people didn’t come to the theaters to see the film…

There was some criticism that the dialogues didn’t work in Hindi the way they did in Tamil. That they were literally translated and made no impact.

There were all sorts of criticism with the whole film – not just the dialogues. People didn’t like the story; they didn’t like the whole simple idea of two people being that way with each other – I think Bombay and these Hindi critics, they’re generally used to certain films; their whole life is based on the films that don’t subscribe to this kind of reality. They didn’t see the film. And about ten critics killed the film and prevented people from coming to the theatre. We didn’t have a Ranbir or a Shahid – just Prateik, who I didn’t think could carry the weight of the film on his shoulders. Other than AR Rahman, we didn’t have anyone to support the film as such, in terms of big names. I think people didn’t even come to the theatre to see the film; they just picked up the talk.

You’ve worked in three movie industries: Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Do you think there’s a great deal of difference between them?

No, I think it’s just a perception, that’s all. The working style and everything is just the same. It’s just that in Hindi they’re very star-driven. I mean, here, I can make the same Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa with rank newcomers – and I would have gotten away with it. But there, you need stars to get across the film to the audience.

What about Nadunisi Naigal? People say it’s your worst film ever. Do you think you could have done something different?

No, I’m actually happy with the way the film turned out. It was experimental. It was supposed to be bizarre and again, it’s a question of why did I make this film? The audience here has this perception that I make a certain kind of film and they couldn’t handle it. It worked against it and prevented most people from coming to the theatre. Which is why we slashed the budget – we made the film in Rs 1 crore 50 lakhs. We took a big opening during the first 3 days actually, which made the money for us, with the satellite rights and everything. It was a smart film, in that sense – it was made at a very low cost; we knew it wouldn’t work beyond a certain point, and a certain section of the audience. It was just me trying to make the kind of films I’ve always wanted to make and not stick to familiar subjects. I’ve got absolutely no regrets about any film I’ve made. We actually showed it to a lot of people in Bombay, and they liked the film. I’m sure 10 years from now people will actually say, it’s a part of a journey in film-making.

What has changed since Minnale, your first film? It’s been a long and eventful career.

I’m still learning the trade, learning the way the industry works, the way critics respond, and stuff like that. Nothing has changed, absolutely. With every film I learn more, and look forward to making my next film.

But you have a reputation for being very forthright.

That’s just me. Not just with films, but work, and that’s how I’ve been in life also. I think my films are like that as well.

So who’s the best heroine you’ve worked with, so far?

I still haven’t found her. I mean yeah, I’ve liked everybody’s work, but I’m still looking for that perfect leading lady. I’ve liked working with Jyothika and Trisha, definitely. Maybe if I get a chance to work with Kate Winslet, I’ll tell you.

So far, you’ve shuttled between romance and action, mostly. Any reason why you haven’t tried anything else, yet?

What other genre could I try? I guess I’m not too bad at comedy – Minnale and Neethaane En Ponvasantham do have their share of humour. I think all my films are laced with some humour – even Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu had Kamal sir mouthing some funny lines. Other than that, I tried the psycho-thriller line with both Nadunisi Naigal and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu.

Why do some of your films take a long time to make, while others are done quickly?

I think the answer lies in your question. Some films take a long time to make, because they take a long time. See, making a film depends on the actors, the situations – like, Vaaranam Aayiram did take a long time because we had Suriya playing two characters; we wanted him to lose weight for one and put on weight for the other. We gave him the time, you know, to change. In fact, he played characters from 16 to 60 and we gave him three months to actually look different, between each of the characters. But Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa was done in 60–75 days. Most of my films have been shot over 70 days. When you work with people like Simbu, you know, he needs a little time to complete things. You can’t get him every day and get him to do work. Also, when you want music from someone like AR Rahman, you get the songs spread over eight months. You need to wait for the music to come.

Speaking of Vaaranam Aayiram – wasn’t the film an ode to your father?

Yes.

How influenced were you, by him, in your work?

Not just with my films, but generally in life. I was really inspired by him. He was a dear friend, and we had a very easy relationship. We always used to go to each other when things didn’t work out. I was inspired by him with everything: life, love, cricket…

What about your film with Ilaiya Thalapathi Vijay?

It’s starting in June. It’s one of our biggest films, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Looking at the title, Yohan: Adhyayam Ondru (Yohan: Episode One) – is it a part a series?

Yes, the film will have sequels. We’re going to set up a character that people will want to come back and watch, like a James Bond kind of thing.

Fair enough – but why Yohan?

Yohan’s a very popular Christian name. It’s another form of John, actually. In Christian circles, people will definitely know what it means. We wanted something unique.

There’s been a lot of talk that the film’s posters were inspired by a French film.

See, if you look at what people have done on the Net – they’ve actually taken our posters, and put it on shots of Will Smith and other French films. We haven’t done that. The official posters we came out with, the ones that appeared in the newspapers and magazine, are all original. The ones that appeared on the Net are what fans have pulled out and used on other images. They’re not what we’ve done. It’s not a remake or an inspired film. It’s original in every way. (Pause – and now he’s quite angry) See, I don’t want to answer these questions. People write all sorts of things. There’s this online community that’s very jobless. They sit in closed rooms and vent their feelings. You can’t respond to all these people because there’s a big hatred out there, towards certain people. Like this whole controversy about Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman, because I’m doing a film with Raja sir. I mean, seriously? Who are you to sit in a room and talk about legends like Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman? To compare them is really unfair. After a time, I decided that there wasn’t any point in reading these and responding to them. Because these are frustrated, jobless people. And they do all sorts of stuff, sitting in their dark rooms, in front of a computer. It really doesn’t matter. This is a very small community, which reaches out to a small section of people. Internet penetration itself is very low in India. And even among those, there are very few people who actually browse and comment. I mean, how jobless would you have to be to actually comment on a trailer? How many times have you or I commented on a trailer we’ve seen? If we see something online, we like it and move on. We don’t sit and comment on it. It’s just not done.

Isn’t there some talk about a TV series with R Parthiban?

Yes – we’re starting it in a month’s time. We’re doing a series of episodes based on a central character who happens to be a cop. It is set in Chennai and is about crime in the city and how cops handle it. It’s also an emotional story about a cop who is a widower and with a daughter. It’s going to be very interesting. And it’s going to have music by AR Rahman, incidentally.

That’s a first, isn’t it? Bringing AR Rahman to the small-screen? How difficult was it to manage it?

Oh, he was perfectly okay with it. Didn’t take any convincing at all, because he said, ‘We really should improve the quality of programmes on TV. Television is so bad; we must do something to better it’. It will be like, one hour episodes, hopefully Monday to Friday.

What’s your journey been like, as a producer?

It’s a journey that’s just begun, actually. We know we’ll come around and do much better films. Hopefully, we’ll make more money and put that back in the films. We have been meeting a lot of people. Now that you’ve made films and a name for yourself, people want to make films for you. All the big directors want to make films for themselves and we want to work with smaller, new directors. First, we need to establish a banner – and that’s not going to be easy. I mean, the first three films didn’t actually make much money for us. But we’re trying. We will. We’re actually coming out with two films this year, apart from our own Yohan. There will be two or three more films next year – I’ve actually asked a couple of big directors to do something for us. (Pause) It’s been ten years in the industry and it’s high time we gave something back to it…