The Making Of Jawan - Atlee On His Process & Directing SRK- Film Companion
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00:00 films, your film is mad, I want to work with you, that's all, I will sign them, that's
00:04 all my secret of signing, you was loving me like anything, so I have to give it back with
00:09 a great love, I always used to say, sir how much I love you, you will only know when the
00:14 film releases.
00:15 Atli, it's so wonderful to have you on Film Companion, this show is called Post Mortem,
00:28 so we are going to deep dive into Jawan, spoiler alert, please don't be shouting at me later,
00:35 this is going to be an in-depth conversation, firstly big congratulations.
00:40 Thank you.
00:41 What have the last few days been like?
00:44 It's been like, if you go to God and if you wish for something that happens, then you
00:51 will be very thankful, no?
00:53 So my mind is very thankful to the audience and Red Chillies, Gauri ma'am, Shah Rukh
00:58 sir, my technicians, I am very thankful to everyone who stood by me to make this film
01:03 and as I wished, everything went really well and I am happy.
01:08 You called this film an elephant pregnancy because it took so long, what was the hardest
01:15 part about it?
01:17 Not only me, for the entire world, unprecedented lockdowns and Covid were really playing a
01:24 major role in their plans of life.
01:27 So when I wrote the script, of course, I always go for a grandeur and large number of extras
01:36 and big action sequence.
01:39 So once I wrote and I narrated to sir, he was happy, then I asked 40-45 days to develop
01:46 and come back.
01:47 So then I came back, it was locked down.
01:52 Then I gave a narration.
01:53 When I gave narration, I had a system, "Oh, the world is going to turn to everyone, I
01:58 don't know how it's going to take place."
02:01 I was really unsure like everyone.
02:04 So sir said, "Superb, sir, let's do it."
02:08 Then he green-lighted the project with Magnum Opus requirements and stuff.
02:14 But I don't want to shoot with the protocols what was there because then it is concising
02:22 the film into a different world in which Kansar also didn't want to do it in that time.
02:27 So we waited, we really waited to all the protocols get open and go on a full throttle,
02:35 full on mass action zone.
02:38 So the waiting period was there.
02:40 Yeah, of course it was there, but it's nobody's, it's a nature call.
02:45 But you wrote the film for Shah Rukh?
02:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:50 Because I'm a person, I just want to meet, spend time with someone whom I'm going to
02:54 work next.
02:55 Then I will read them, I'll see their films.
03:00 We will have a discussion chart of do's and do nots, what they have done, what we have
03:05 to do new.
03:06 We will do all these stuff.
03:08 Then only we take a white sheet and start our love letters today.
03:12 You know, love letter is the perfect way to describe it because I feel like you really
03:22 love your heroes.
03:24 Yeah, that's my job.
03:28 But you make them sort of superheroic.
03:35 You know, in other films, honestly, even big star cast movies, the hero gets one hero entry,
03:42 right?
03:43 In your films, the heroes again and again, like every second sequence will be like something
03:49 heroic, slow motion, glasses will come off.
03:55 Where does this grand love for heroes come from?
03:59 See, my father is a MGR fans fan follower.
04:03 So when I was in my childhood, he used to talk about mass always.
04:09 So I started following his films.
04:12 So his films were not very intellectual zones, but it was very commercial and very, you will
04:23 have some responsibility take over.
04:25 It was a different grammar.
04:27 But when you see Sivaji sir's film, it will be little intellectual and it will be very
04:31 emotionally written, very performance oriented.
04:34 MGR sir had a different route.
04:36 So I learned from there.
04:38 Then after that, when I was a youngster who goes to theatre, there was Kamal sir and Rajini
04:44 sir.
04:45 So Rajini sir was exactly taking the blueprint of MGR sir in terms of mass, scaling and positioning
04:55 a film.
04:56 Kamal sir was doing in a different way where he takes the cinema to the global level.
05:02 So I got this basic blueprint from there.
05:07 Then I started implementing in my cinema world.
05:11 So day one, I see, I am a very basic person.
05:14 I do not have, I do not know much in life also.
05:18 I can be very honest on it.
05:19 There are much better writers and much better directors than me.
05:23 I know that.
05:24 I know that, but I am very basic person.
05:26 I can only go with the basic elements.
05:30 If I see someone in road of something, I will tear.
05:36 If I see something to clap, if a small kid on a stage dances, I will clap first because
05:43 I am very instinctive and I am basic.
05:45 So I know myself very well.
05:47 So I do not want to go all out and do something which I am not.
05:51 So I want to do what I am.
05:52 So I am a very basic person.
05:54 So I want to give the basicness to everyone.
05:56 That is why I think fortunately things are falling in my place.
06:01 People are loving my scenes.
06:03 Of course there will be critically said, this is not a brilliant scene, this is a usual
06:07 scene we have seen.
06:08 That is okay.
06:09 I am aware of it.
06:10 I am not a person, I do not know about it.
06:12 I know I am very, very aware of it.
06:14 That is okay.
06:15 But my audience, they expect this from me and my audience are giving back as a reviews
06:21 and box office.
06:23 Until then it is reflecting, I think God is driving me right.
06:28 But tell me this, you love your heroes so much that one is never enough, right?
06:36 In the last three films you made, you had double, triple.
06:42 Is that because you just want to see them more?
06:45 Yeah, see I first become their fan, loyal fan.
06:52 Loyal fans are fans who really say if the film is not right, it is not right.
06:57 So I become a loyal fan first to the actor and in the monitor I do the fan job.
07:03 If the shot is not right, I will be very honest, sir it is not working.
07:08 And I know how to, I can see how the fans want to see them.
07:14 So I see them in such a way.
07:15 So for an instance, Shah Rukh sir hairstyle of his 30 years is something else.
07:22 Even in my school times I went to saloon and I have said Shah Rukh cut.
07:26 So his hair is the most iconic of him.
07:30 But I want to go him to a bald zone.
07:33 I asked for him to do a bald zone.
07:36 Of course he has played father, I think one or two films.
07:40 But this father, he has never done.
07:43 So I try something which his fans really want to see in a new avatar.
07:49 And yeah, I am basically in one word if I have to answer, I become their loyal fan first
07:55 so that I will never take them to a wrong route.
07:59 But the fan in you, you are saying does not stop you from criticizing a performance or
08:06 saying this is not good enough.
08:08 A loyal fan should be very loyal to the actors and if you love your mother, you have to be
08:13 loyal to your mother.
08:14 If your mother is wrong or if your brother is wrong, if your family is wrong, something
08:19 is wrong.
08:20 Of course with heart, with a love heart you say it's wrong.
08:23 So that is why the word has loyalty.
08:25 So I am a loyal fan.
08:28 So what you're saying is, can you make a film with an actor you're not a fan of?
08:35 Whomever I'm going to work, I will become their fan first.
08:38 That's what you have to do.
08:40 Yeah, without love there is nothing in the world.
08:44 So see, my job is not a math or a business or a business max formula to it.
08:52 My craft is about love.
08:55 If I don't love something, I can't creatively produce.
08:58 So I have to fall in love.
09:01 If I like a girl, I can't just marry.
09:03 I have to fall in love with her.
09:05 So if I'm making a film with someone, it's not about only the hero, even the producer.
09:10 You have to fall in love with everyone.
09:12 Yeah, yeah, of course, because see, the world is driven by love.
09:17 Without love, everything will be mechanical.
09:19 If I turn one time mechanical, I won't be in this path.
09:23 So I'll be very honest to the work and I will try to be, honesty comes through love.
09:28 So if I'm going to work with someone, I take real time, whether I can match, whether I
09:35 can really love them.
09:36 Is it really I have a takeaway from them?
09:39 Am I going to learn from them?
09:42 Is he a right person for me?
09:45 So of course, of course, I have a business math to it in a love angle, not a box office
09:52 angle.
09:53 Yeah, okay, I'm going to work with them.
09:54 Okay, does he give respect back?
09:57 Yes, really wants to work with me.
10:00 See, if someone comes to me, sir, I've seen all your films, your film is bad, I want to
10:04 work with you.
10:05 That's all.
10:06 I'll sign them.
10:07 That's all my secret of signing.
10:10 If someone comes, I'll pay you this much one, you get it in single check.
10:15 I have said no to a lot of people.
10:17 I know you can't buy me, but you can love me, I can love you back.
10:21 That's all.
10:22 So without love, I can't create anything.
10:24 And not me.
10:25 I'm not saying any creator without love, they can't create.
10:28 So in the three films before Jawan, the big love was of course, superstar Vijay.
10:37 Right?
10:38 You said it was almost like you had gone into a comfort zone, right?
10:42 Because you're making films with him in Tamil, which were very successful.
10:45 What did you have to do?
10:47 And how hard was it in the beginning for you to get out of this comfort zone to make a
10:53 film for another actor in another language, in another film culture?
10:59 See at a point I was feeling myself, what to say, whatever I asked I got in my home
11:06 ground.
11:07 I think I gave the biggest box office films there as per trade talk.
11:14 But at a point I felt, okay, what I'm going to do next.
11:19 So again, maybe I would have done with Vijay sir.
11:23 And at a point Vijay sir, me, Priya, we were in a discussion, basic discussion that time.
11:32 So I told him that I had a call from Shah Rukh sir.
11:36 He said, yeah, this time you have to work with him.
11:39 This is a bigger game.
11:41 It's a bigger chance for you to prove yourself and somehow try and push yourself.
11:48 Don't try to be in the same comfort and just take the comfort and come.
11:52 And Priya also, after going, driving home, she said, see, the growth only happens when
11:58 you come out of your comfort zone and take a risk in life.
12:02 So we have to, and this is a time.
12:05 Okay, that's okay.
12:07 We don't, it doesn't work for us.
12:09 We'll start from the scratch.
12:10 That's not a worry.
12:11 I'm the person behind you.
12:13 I'm saying just go for it.
12:15 So these backbones really pushed me.
12:18 Then I didn't go.
12:20 Were you scared?
12:22 No, the welcome part from Khan sir was something else.
12:26 So it was something like, yeah, of course, he's a man of love heart and he really welcomed
12:33 us like, he was loving me like anything.
12:37 So I have to give it back with a great love.
12:39 So I always used to say, sir, how much I love you, you will only know when the film releases.
12:44 He knows, but as a joke, I always used to say, sir, I know, sir, I know, sir, he used
12:49 to say.
12:50 So I think I didn't have any discomfort working when I crossed my comfort zone.
12:58 The only, my mindset was whether I'm taking a risk or I'm taking a correct call, I had.
13:04 But when I came here, when I came to Bombay, when I met Shah Rukh sir, when I started working
13:10 with him, I didn't have any difference.
13:12 I just worked with the same technician, same team, which I worked on my previous film.
13:19 Shah Rukh sir, actually, you have to ask this question, whether he was comfortable working
13:23 with us because we were talking in Tamil, we were talking in Telugu, Malayalam, he was
13:29 just, but he is a king by himself.
13:32 I know that.
13:33 And he was enjoying the process.
13:35 He was just going behind everyone and saying, let's do it, let's do it, we will make it.
13:40 So actually, I think I was very, very comfortable.
13:43 I didn't have any, I'm not just saying for the sake of an interview also.
13:47 If I felt I would have said yes, I had some.
13:51 I was like, I was in as if, if Aryan would have directed Shah Rukh sir, how comfortable
14:00 he would have been, I would have, I have been in that zone.
14:03 I was very, very comfortable.
14:05 Tell me, but, so you don't understand Hindi, right?
14:08 No, till now, no.
14:10 So when you're directing a film, which is so much about, let's say, dialogue delivery,
14:19 right?
14:20 How, how a particular line, how that bete aur baap aala line lands, correct?
14:25 But you don't know the language.
14:27 So you're communicating in English.
14:29 And then the performances in Hindi.
14:31 How do you know ki, I got it?
14:36 Actually, a film is not bounded by languages for sure.
14:41 It doesn't have, you can't restrict films by languages.
14:46 I used to sing Hindi song.
14:48 I don't know Hindi.
14:50 You must have sung some Tamil songs.
14:52 You don't know Tamil?
14:54 But it is something, something by nature you know the rhythm.
14:59 Okay.
15:00 So even we, in my childhood, when I was not so familiar with that much of English, Hollywood
15:08 English, but I liked Titanic.
15:11 I don't think language is a barrier.
15:14 Not even to directing?
15:16 No, no, no, not at all.
15:18 So maybe I can direct a Spanish film next.
15:21 I'll love you.
15:22 Yeah, I'm just saying.
15:23 Yeah.
15:24 So it's not, see, if you know the game, if in cricket, if you know Hindi, you can play
15:31 well.
15:32 Anyone can say.
15:33 Cricket is a different game.
15:34 Of course, of course, the calls, the communications might have a little spaced out, but that's
15:41 okay.
15:42 You know the heart.
15:43 If you, if Dhoni sees, Dhoni sir sees, people will move to the angle.
15:46 That's all.
15:47 Ashwin might be from, doesn't know Hindi, but he can move.
15:51 So it's like that.
15:52 I think, I personally think language cannot concise cinema.
15:57 I have not done for the first time.
15:58 I think a lot of big personalities and directors have done before.
16:04 As you asked, how the dialogue punctuations, I know the rhythm, I know the beat.
16:09 So all the dialogues, all the mother script was written in Tamil.
16:14 We exactly changed to Hindi.
16:17 So we know where the beats and where the beat is going off also.
16:21 Then Kansa says, no sir, in Tamil it works really fine, but in Hindi, if it comes, it
16:25 has to go in this way.
16:27 Sir, in Hindi, if it, this time it is fine, but in Tamil it is going in that way.
16:32 So we can read each other.
16:34 So I think we had a very easy time on languages.
16:37 We didn't have, okay, am I going out of the zone?
16:41 I know, yeah, it's my game.
16:43 The rhythm is fine.
16:44 Shot is okay.
16:45 Dialogue is perfect.
16:47 So let's do the second part of the dialogue in closer.
16:49 So it was within.
16:52 You know, also with, of course the monologue, which has become such a, such a talking point.
16:59 So there also you could sense from the rhythm that this is fine.
17:05 Yeah.
17:06 Wow.
17:07 Yeah.
17:08 I don't know music, but I instruct Annie how to do music.
17:13 I've instructed Rahman sir how to do music.
17:15 But see, we don't know, but why they are listening to us.
17:19 Of course, Rahman sir is a genius.
17:21 Annie is a genius.
17:23 Of course, the action directors, Shahrukh sir is a genius.
17:25 He knows what is acting.
17:27 Why he is listening to a director?
17:29 A director comes with a rhythm.
17:31 Our job is to come with a rhythm and get the rhythm right.
17:35 So I don't know music.
17:37 I don't know Sari Gamapala.
17:38 I don't know nothing, but I can ask what I want.
17:42 So that's my craft.
17:44 So you have to trust me that we can get that.
17:48 So that's how we have made this film.
17:50 Yeah.
17:51 Yeah.
17:52 You know, what fascinates me about your films is also how much story there is.
17:59 I saw your short film, which is on YouTube.
18:02 And why did you see that?
18:05 Because I'm interested in your cinema.
18:08 I was just joking.
18:09 It's a good one.
18:10 It is a good one.
18:11 Listen, those first five, seven minutes are so surprising.
18:16 It goes into a place that I never imagined.
18:19 Then it goes somewhere else.
18:20 Then it goes somewhere else.
18:22 And you've continued to do that.
18:24 There is just your narrative is so dense.
18:27 There's so much story, which can also become like for me, when I was watching Jawan, at
18:34 times I said, wait, wait, let me soak in this emotion.
18:37 Too much to digest.
18:38 Too much.
18:39 How do you write so much?
18:42 Because we have lot of taste audience.
18:46 So I'm not a, maybe can only talk about my writing and my narrative.
18:52 So I'm always think about certain people will love the father-daughter portion.
18:58 Certain people will love the action portion.
19:01 Certain people will love the emotional portion.
19:04 So something you will take home.
19:06 So in any ways, the ensemblity will make you feel satisfied.
19:11 So that is my rhythm.
19:12 So I strongly believe in it.
19:14 I need multiple stories.
19:16 I need multiple plots to make a film.
19:20 See for example, certain films are like, I generally in a discussion, we used to have
19:27 a discussion.
19:30 If you go to a carnival, village carnival, you will have Jain wheel, you will have big
19:36 dosas happening, you will have this.
19:39 Something the other will keep you engaging.
19:42 End of the day when you come out, yeah, superb.
19:44 It was very entertaining.
19:46 So that is our job.
19:47 That is my job.
19:48 So my film should give a good entertainment.
19:51 And when you go back, you have to have a little responsibility.
19:53 Yeah, I've learned something from this.
19:57 Of course, it's overall it should entertain.
20:00 This is my mandate and principle on making a film.
20:04 So that's why I have to write lot to make one film.
20:08 I can't come with a single plot for the daughter's story for two hours.
20:13 Maybe I'll get exhausted.
20:14 Oh no, it's not my rhythm.
20:16 So that is my narrative pattern.
20:19 So your hope is that because there are so many stories, some story will connect with
20:25 you.
20:26 See, every story has connected me.
20:29 Every plot has connected me.
20:30 Without a conviction, I just, I don't keep an ensemble, collage in a film.
20:36 Every part has worked for me.
20:37 Without a conviction, I won't come up.
20:40 But I feel certain people will not up to certain things and they will like certain things.
20:47 So you want to please everyone.
20:48 Yeah, six to sixty.
20:51 That's your mantra.
20:52 Yeah.
20:53 So certain people will love Ma's opening song.
20:56 Certain people will say, what is this?
20:58 Then they will love Chaliya.
21:00 Certain people will love Farata.
21:02 Certain people will love, oh, what an emotional song, Ari Rau.
21:05 So yeah, we have to give an ensemble, entertaining platter in a film.
21:11 So that's, that's why.
21:14 Tell me how you design the hero entries.
21:19 See my film, always I start my writing on heroine character.
21:24 Heroine character?
21:25 Yeah.
21:26 No.
21:27 That was your question, right?
21:28 No, I'm saying the hero entry.
21:30 How do you, oh sorry, how do you design your hero entry?
21:35 Like Shah Rukh standing in bandages on that mountain.
21:38 See basically, I'm a very spiritual person.
21:41 So everyone, when you go to a temple, where you have a lot of crowd, you wait in a queue
21:50 the early morning and you build it up.
21:52 Okay, it's next, it's next.
21:54 Suddenly when you go with full aarti, so you get one goose bump and you get, oh wow.
22:01 So that's a rhythm.
22:04 That is a rhythm where you have to make little wait and you have to lead a build up and you
22:10 have to show them.
22:12 So that is the heroism to me.
22:14 That is my basic IQ understanding.
22:17 So you have to wait, you have to make wait and you have to show and you have to show
22:22 in a very grander way with lighting, music and it should really be a goose bump shot.
22:28 So that's how I design all my introduction shots and I will have 25 to 30 introduction
22:36 shots in my film and I will have another character coming into a film in the middle.
22:43 Then it will have another 20, 25 introduction shots.
22:46 Then I'm okay.
22:47 Yeah.
22:48 Then you're happy.
22:49 My mound is ready.
22:50 Ready, let's go.
22:51 Good to go chief.
22:52 No, I'm not joking.
22:55 Seriously, I'm just saying.
22:56 This is how I get satisfied.
22:59 I get.
23:00 You're happy.
23:01 Yeah.
23:02 Yeah.
23:03 It should make me happy.
23:04 I can't make something which is not making me happy.
23:06 But where do these ideas come from?
23:08 Because they're so fantastical, right?
23:11 Because okay, we've seen, we've seen Vikram Rathod on top of that mountain.
23:15 Then we see Vikram Rathod just before interval coming in with that, that weapon.
23:21 You think, okay, now Vikram has got enough hero moments, but no.
23:25 Then there's that lorry kachez when Vikram Rathod is on a mo-bike on top of your head.
23:31 I was like, oh my God, it's just, it like never stops.
23:35 How do you keep coming up with ways to introduce heroes?
23:40 I don't know.
23:41 I'm just doing what I love.
23:42 But where does it come from?
23:44 You're sitting with a piece of paper and it just comes to you?
23:46 That's me.
23:47 That is me.
23:48 Actually, that is my heart.
23:50 So for an example, last week when the film released, the people who worked on our film
24:02 were from Hollywood, Spiro and some great directors and technicians have also been in
24:09 the same screening.
24:12 So Spiro said, I have done this action.
24:14 So they asked Spiro who has done that, as you asked that one, the flame coming.
24:22 So it was director's vision and he executed those things.
24:25 Of course, those parts I executed.
24:28 So they immediately connected with me.
24:31 They said, if you want to work with in Hollywood, you let us know.
24:35 So it is not a taste which is very desi.
24:39 It is something super heroic and it has a very basic rhythm, not a very new rhythm.
24:49 When someone is in trouble, you pray to God, God, please come, please come.
24:54 If the God comes, what is your feeling?
24:56 You'll get wow about it.
24:58 So these are my minor formulas to execute these things.
25:05 The girl is in trouble, her headphone falls down.
25:07 Now she's going to go under the wheel.
25:09 Who's going to come?
25:10 No one is there.
25:11 Come on, there's a driving.
25:12 Come on, fly.
25:13 That's all.
25:14 Finished.
25:15 You are clapping, I am clapping, I am happy.
25:16 You are happy, everyone is happy.
25:18 And you get a call from Hollywood and saying, wow, we have not seen this.
25:21 Oh my God, I thought only it is, it's an idea which only works for us.
25:26 Globally, it is working.
25:29 So I think, I think cinema is, it's a, it's a magical medium.
25:35 If you work very honestly with your ideas, let the ideas be very, how to call it, non-logical
25:44 or something not very intelligent.
25:49 But if you put your heart and soul and make it better and better and give a class note
25:55 to it in execution, I think it's going to work.
25:58 So you can, will anybody can hold a plane?
26:02 No.
26:03 I have seen a film and I have sold it and I have clapped in a theatre.
26:05 So I got those essence from there also.
26:08 So my idea is when someone is in trouble, bring the God.
26:13 So that's my heroism.
26:14 Where do you write?
26:18 Is there a place in your house?
26:19 Is there like a time when you like to write?
26:23 See, I actually, after a film gets over, I get to go to a lot of theatre visits.
26:30 I really read the people.
26:33 I don't read, of course I read reviews and I don't go only by reviews or my friend saying
26:41 the film is nice, my family saying film is nice.
26:44 I go to theatre, I silently go, stand near a edge where I really read, okay, this place
26:51 they are clapping, yeah, clap, super.
26:53 Why not clapping?
26:54 Okay.
26:55 I go to another theatre, here they are clapping, why they are not clapping there?
26:59 What is the difference?
27:00 Okay.
27:01 This place, surprisingly everyone is clapping for this dialogue.
27:03 What it is?
27:04 So I do a complete math after a film gets over and it should go out of the theatre.
27:11 Then we used to sit with the team and analyse what is our film, why it worked, what worked,
27:17 what didn't work.
27:20 Then we go for two months, we put all our phone off and we just go either abroad.
27:27 My favourite place is Amsterdam, so I used to go there and sit with my friends and my
27:33 writers and we write something else.
27:37 We write lot of papers and we come with lot of ideas and we come down.
27:42 Then fortunately my office people will align certain meetings with certain people, so there
27:48 are these meetings, they have asked for these meetings.
27:51 I go, some meeting will get clicked, then we will start working on a hero and that's
27:55 how weтАж
27:56 So the writing is not detailed scripts, the writing is ideas.
28:00 Yeah, see I don't repeat my genres, first thing, that's why I am not very keen in
28:07 making any of the repetitive genre of mine, so I try another genre.
28:13 So now what is the volume we can go on, execution.
28:18 So we decide those things and we come with a scratch idea, we don't come with a bound.
28:22 So two months we go, we do lot of idea throwing and we come, we register the scripts, SWA,
28:31 we just mail and register the scripts and keep it ready.
28:34 When correct people come, when the correct volume of producers come on, those kind of,
28:39 if the expectation match, we make it a bound.
28:43 So you said that you don't want to repeat genres, but Adli, the one thing that is in
28:48 almost all your films is the flashback.
28:50 Yeah.
28:51 The Adli flashback is now a signature.
28:54 Why and truthfully it is, it's the most emotionally resonant part of many of your
29:02 films, you know, the Mursel and Bigil and of course in Jawan, the Deepika Padukone part
29:08 is just, it's where you really, my heart sort of came out.
29:13 What is the fascination with the flashback?
29:19 As a, leave creator, leave writer, leave director, as a person, what do you cherish?
29:27 You cherish about your memories.
29:29 So when you think about what has happened in your life, it is always interesting to
29:34 sit and think for 10 minutes, my God, I've gone through this, oh wow, how are life.
29:40 So it is a attractive nature by brain science, psychological science.
29:49 If you think about your past or something, it is a good zone you are in.
29:54 So always a flashback, a memory is always a good zone to narrate and what is the best
30:02 part for a director, writer like me, you can switch off all your ongoing questions and
30:08 you can start a new life, new background, new story and you take them to a new world.
30:15 So when you go to a new world and that is also not easy by stopping because we are planting
30:20 something very interesting for almost one third of the, one, almost 60% of the film,
30:26 you invest on a story and you go back to a new world, it's very difficult also.
30:31 But if you give a right connection between the present and the past flashback, it gives
30:37 an amazing narrative and it has worked for lot of directors, lot of big films.
30:44 So that's why I always believe in that too.
30:48 And first I write the flashback of a film.
30:50 Really?
30:51 Yeah, that's how I start.
30:52 I write with a heroine, always all my flashbacks will have the heroine as a strongest character.
30:58 All my films are heroines are strongest character, if you see they don't just come and go.
31:03 So I start with a very strong emotional plot and then I start doing the present.
31:10 So that's why I feel that is working for me till now and hopefully it should work in
31:17 the future also.
31:19 But of course yeah now it has become like, sir in this flashback you're going to kill
31:24 Deepika, some people ask me before the release.
31:28 Okay know the reason, yeah what would be the reason is intriguing them, that's okay.
31:33 But maybe I will change a little bit in the next, I understood okay they are expecting
31:37 this so I will do something about it in the next to make it little different.
31:44 Well you know two of my favourite scenes was of course in Mursal when she's dying inside
31:52 and he's telling his young son about how they met.
31:57 It was just so moving and that cutting between those two sequences and he's praising her
32:02 and she's dying and he doesn't know that she's dying.
32:05 I thought that was so beautifully done and in Bigil when you know the father Rayappan
32:10 is actually attacked and he comes, he jumps down from the train but the football also
32:18 falls.
32:19 I thought that was so, that said so much you know without saying, where do these kind of
32:27 ideas come from?
32:29 Do you, once you've started writing is it on paper or are you creating on set?
32:35 See 90% things are on paper, 10% sometimes when the ambi is set, when shooting you get
32:44 those things.
32:45 But I learnt these craft from Balachander sir.
32:48 You see Balachander sir, suddenly people will be talking, he will go to a toy which is on
32:53 a table, he will express it.
32:56 So cinema is a visual medium so you shouldn't, you should reduce dialogue, can't be saying
33:02 everything in dialogue.
33:04 So I got the craft from Bharat Raja sir, Balachander sir, I learnt those craft from them and as
33:14 you asked the flashback of Mersal which was happened to me really, my mother went to a
33:23 normal delivery but it turned to be a cesarean and the baby didn't, the baby was died and
33:30 my mother was in ICU for 4-5 months later.
33:33 So it was a very traumatic experience when I was a very small boy.
33:38 So it...
33:39 So that comes from life.
33:40 Yeah, so that came from life and Rayappan thing is cinematical experience.
33:45 I love my father so I write all father characters in a very emotional strong way, that's why
33:53 Rayappan is standing out, Vetrimaran character is standing out of Mersal and Vikram Ghatur
33:57 is standing out.
33:59 Yeah, I am, it is very emotionally connected within me so that's why it comes as a writing.
34:06 You know how do you decide, Atli, how much violence, because you want to appeal from
34:12 6 to 60, right?
34:15 How do you decide that this much violence is okay for 6 to 60 because there's some,
34:20 you know you kill a lot of children in Jawan, even a dog is shot, I was like oh god, is
34:27 nothing sacred, even the dog's gone.
34:31 So how do you decide that this much violence is okay and I shouldn't push it beyond this?
34:37 See violence is defined by the way it is being shown on the screen and it should create an
34:44 impact but it should not be gory, that is my evaluation.
34:48 Some people will go for another level, some people will go for a very sub-sided level,
34:53 it depends on the genre and the pain you have to give on to the audience.
34:58 I am a big dog lover, so yeah of course, the puppy name was Bunty, it was amazing to act,
35:09 if we go to him and say lie down, he will lie down, so it was amazing and yeah it was
35:16 very painful for me to see in visual, as a narrative we are trying to give very hard
35:22 hitting scenes.
35:24 Of course, yeah, we have an evaluation that 6 to 60 are watching, a film is very, very,
35:31 in the public forum it has to connect the audience, people should not hide their faces
35:37 when they see it.
35:38 So I measure it really well and I didn't, I have in any of my film, even Mersal, when
35:45 the pregnancy, the belly has to be cut, it has to be cut, it has to be shown.
35:49 I think certain, without injection you can't cure a fever, so sometimes injections are
35:56 okay until if it has a reason and responsibility that is okay, I feel as a writer.
36:03 And how do you decide how much slow motion to use, because you use it a lot, what sort
36:12 of convinces you, okay right here and right here and right here?
36:17 More than a match you like a replay, why?
36:20 So you want to see it once again in a slow mo, so it's a mood, it's, see certain things
36:26 has to be fast, certain cuts, so slow motion is not a new shot division that I cracked
36:34 it, lot of people does that.
36:36 But I have a different aesthetics to it and whenever I want to punctuate it, I punctuate
36:43 it in a phantom.
36:45 So I think phantom will be always there in my film, my cameraman goes really, oh my god,
36:51 phantom shot, because phantom shots are, they will have a little problem on lighting also,
36:56 they have to light more to get it very slow, so Vishnu always, no, no, no phantom, this
37:01 one shot, no, no, no Vishnu, please come on take it.
37:04 So yeah, it's a give and take but it works for the audience and works for me very well
37:09 and I love, I love, I love, I love.
37:13 A film like this and all your other films as well, actually have so much that I am assuming
37:20 is constructed on the edit table, right?
37:23 Because you're cross cutting, your shots are not usually very long, they're very, very
37:28 quick, quick, quick cuts, how do you work with Ruben?
37:31 See a writing phase on a filmmaking goes on different stages, so sometimes when you narrate
37:40 it might be great when you narrate the film but when you see the film, oh my god, it is
37:45 four hours, oh wow, okay, how to get it?
37:51 For filmmaking or art you don't have a math or a formula, if you do by formula and math
37:56 and it is not art to me.
37:59 So we write lot, of course, Shah Rukh sir used to say, sir, you have written so much
38:06 sir, yeah sir, yeah sir, this much, this much, then we come to alignment, okay, we will lap
38:11 this, this, but when you are happy about, so I will say certain places, so should we
38:16 go, no, no sir, I love that part very much.
38:18 So it is like we are all making a film, so we are happy to make everything and put it
38:23 on the edit table.
38:24 Now edit table is one more writing phase, so that's where we specifically, precisely
38:32 set a rhythm of a film, okay, this is my rhythm of my film, so it should be fast, it shouldn't
38:37 be jittery, it shouldn't be glitch, it should convey the emotion and it should, so you have
38:43 to see multiple times, like literally I am saying more than thousand times if you see
38:49 only you will get the rhythm, it is not by just seeing, oh wow, I don't know what to
38:53 say wrong in it, it works for everyone, everyone can say that, but for an editor and a director
38:59 when they are together, they have to see the film at least thousand times, at least to
39:03 get the right rhythm.
39:05 I think out of all my films, I felt Jawan was a very, very good rhythm of edit because
39:10 we have spent a very, very nice time and thanks to Kansar, he gave us time, so it set the
39:18 pace in a nice manner, I think all the emotions has connected, all the slow motion shots were
39:26 there, so it was a good pace, yeah I am happy about it.
39:31 So do you and Ruben, like when you were editing, are you the director who is so in love with
39:41 the material that you can't let it go or if he says this is not working, let it go,
39:47 you are willing to do that?
39:50 See first I will sit like an audience, not a director, I know, you can do that, you can
39:57 disconnect from your own work, yeah, when I enter my room, before entering room, I will
40:02 be director, I will be scheduling, I will be doing this, if I enter that room, I will
40:06 become a fan, I will become an audience, no, no love, hate, nothing, I know I would have
40:13 sweated a lot, I would have walked for a kilometre to just place a camera there, I would have,
40:19 someone would have really put their heart and soul to make that shot, I know that, I
40:23 know that, with a heart call only we take it, but I don't put it at first, it's a
40:30 film, so many people are working on this film, I have to justify their work first, I can't
40:36 be very partially calculating, okay, this was a good shot, it was lighted for 3 hours,
40:44 this was a cameraman shot, no, that's a film, it works or not, even my mass shots
40:49 I have taken out, yeah of course, the most loved shots I have taken out, so you have
40:55 to sit as an audience, then you will make audience film, otherwise you will give just
41:00 what you feel, but what you feel is not the film, you have to feel everyone there, over
41:06 everyone is clapping here, one beat if we reduce, the clap will be right, reduce it,
41:11 so it is a tough call, hard calls and tough call and lot of time Ruben and me have fought
41:18 like anything, like we are friends and we literally fight like anything in the editing
41:24 room, suddenly all my assistants will go out, they will know, okay, there is going to be
41:28 a fight, so everyone will go out, why everyone is going out, no, no, no, you please discuss,
41:34 come on be here, then it goes like whole night and we won't speak to each other for 2-3
41:39 days, really, yeah, we won't speak, then I will tell, okay play, I will call his assistant,
41:44 tell him to play, then he will play, then it goes like that, then he will say, no, I
41:52 told this, this, but finally after 3 days, we both will come to alignment, okay, he is
41:59 fighting for a reason, yeah, and he will understand I am fighting for a reason, we are brothers
42:03 actually, I have only worked with Ruben, so I have no problem fighting with him and he
42:08 is an amazing editor, so yeah, it has to be like husband and wife thing, you have to fight
42:14 with your wife, girlfriend, no, this is right, no, that is right, we come to alignment and
42:19 make it better for the family, better for the film, then it is okay, so yeah, it was
42:24 a fun journey, fun journey, yeah.
42:26 You know Atli, one of the criticisms about you is that elements from your film echo other
42:34 films, right, so in Jawan, if there is the shot of wrestling with Aishwarya and Vikram,
42:44 you know it goes back to Marcel, there is the red pill and the blue pill which might
42:49 be the matrix, then there is the Bane character who looks straight out of Batman, what is
42:55 your response to that?
42:58 I know, I know, yeah, people will say that I know, but I am not taking from there, see
43:06 when, I know, I specifically I know I have done Marcel, so I have a kushti scene in it,
43:14 so here there is a kushti scene, I know that, but that is okay, it is my film, that is okay,
43:21 but when it comes to other films, for example Bane, see I want to cover a face in my film
43:30 for an actor which I want to reveal him in next part or a next part, whenever, what mask
43:38 I can go for, so I have one half skull mask, one bandage, the film is about mask only,
43:44 so I have gone for a mask which was designed by my PD, that's all, it was nice, if they
43:52 call Bane, okay, that's fine, it's a good reference, I can go like that, so see in a
43:57 process of creating things, of course you will create something closer to something,
44:03 if the intention is same, if I am doing the same thing, then it is wrong, if it echoes,
44:10 that's okay, until and unless it is a good reference, I am okay, I know I am being criticized
44:16 for this for a very long time, I have been to court, I have won the cases, by honest,
44:22 by merit, so that's okay, I know, see I told you from the beginning, I go by basic,
44:28 I don't have a intellectual brain, I am not a very brainy writer or a, I am not a
44:35 very great director, I am very simple, I know my craft this much, I am trying to create
44:43 this much craft, fortunately God's blessing it is creating that much, I am happy, that's all.
44:49 I know you said in many interviews that now you are taking four months off, right, like
44:54 this is now you are done and there is four months off, can you completely disconnect
44:59 or are you always thinking of stories?
45:02 No, September 8th I was sitting with Priya, I was just asking what I am going to do, so
45:08 it starts the next day, so you can't sit alone, I don't think, yeah, yeah, but my
45:13 boy Mir says come on, come on, come on, sit next, he doesn't speak, he is seven months,
45:19 his eye speaks to me saying that come on, come on, don't go out, don't spend time
45:23 outside, I am here, I am spending time with you, so I am feeling little calm now, I am
45:29 not very aggressive, I am very aggressive person, come on next, come team, come writing
45:34 team, come this, come that, fly them here, let's sit, it happens regularly, but fortunately
45:40 this time I am being very calm, I am sitting with my boy, I think I am going to sit with
45:45 him for next four months, I am going to do some babysitting, I am going to learn fatherhood
45:50 now, I think this is the phase I can learn, then once I start my next film, again the
45:56 poor fellow will be in the same state, so I want to be, spend good time with him, I
46:02 think my next film is for him, so I am going to create something for his world, so that's
46:08 what today I felt, come on, when my next film comes, at least he should be two, three, by
46:16 the release, so he should be happy about Dada's film, so I have to make something for him,
46:22 that's my wish list now, let's see who comes, what comes.
46:26 When you see success of this nature, you know, when it's one, two, three, four, five and
46:32 each one is a bigger blockbuster, how do you prevent yourself from becoming, you know,
46:42 disconnected from what made you successful in the first place?
46:46 See success gives me good protection, first of all and it puts me in a very nice state
46:54 of mind, because see, you can take success in however way you want, you can take it,
47:06 I keep it very, very personal to me, my happiness has been delivered in book as a bound, it
47:15 has made one producer happy, one actor happy and all we came together with the happiness,
47:21 multiple technicians came for that happiness and we tried to make that happiness in spite
47:26 of rain, sun, effort, sweat, bleed, whatever it is, but finally we made that happiness,
47:33 the same happiness has reflected to audience and they are happy when they go out of the
47:37 theatre, oh my god, what a job this is, my single room, my single sheet happiness is
47:43 spreading so much of happiness across, oh wow, it's a great responsibility and that
47:49 keeps me a little pressurized, it's a good pressure, all pressures to just go up only,
47:55 nothing to bring down, so this pressure makes me, okay, next I have to give much bigger,
48:00 see maybe I had in India, twenty percent people know me before Jawan, now at least eighty,
48:08 eighty five percent people should know me by Jawan, so now I have large number of audience
48:13 and fans and my next film everyone is going to come and watch, I know that, so I am becoming
48:19 very responsible, I am taking this success as a responsibility to come with more happiness
48:24 and spread love, so that's how I evaluate every film of mine, that's how I got this,
48:31 as you said one, two, three, four, five, I am happy, I am in a very great cloud nine
48:38 with most number of happy news in 2023, Mir, Jawan, yeah, it's going to keep going for
48:46 sure, yeah.
48:47 That's lovely, thank you so much.
48:50 Thank you, thank you.
48:51 And wishing you many good things.
48:53 Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, thank you so much.
48:55 Thank you.
48:56 Thank you.
48:56 Thank you.
48:56 Thank you.
48:57 (upbeat music)
48:59 (upbeat music)