MUMBAI — He’s a refreshing change from the burgeoning brigade of filmmakers who have scant respect for the audience. A simple man whom you w...
MUMBAI — He’s a refreshing change from the burgeoning brigade of filmmakers who have scant respect for the audience. A simple man whom you would not give a second glance if you passed him on the street, A.R. Murugadoss has given Hindi — no, make that Indian — cinema its biggest grosser ever: “Ghajini,” whose business has been pegged at Rs. 240-plus crore, a little over a 100 crore less than the worldwide collections of a hyped film like “Slumdog Millionaire”!And wonder of wonders, A.R. Murugadoss (the name means servant of Lord Murugan, Lord Ganesh’s brother and Lord Shiva’s son) barely knows Hindi! But the son of a shopkeeper based in a small village 200 km from Chennai has worked his way up the hard way after being educated in the local corporation school.
We chat up at his sparse Mumbai pad, rented because the whiz kid is now parked in Mumbai, away from wife and infant son, working on a script for Shah Rukh Khan. And it looks as if “simple” and “humble” are adjectives coined just to describe the man.
Excerpts from an interview follow.
Q: How did life’s journey go till your filmmaking debut seven years ago?
A: I had written 30 short stories and a novel before I went to Chennai and became a dialogue writer’s assistant. I later became assistant director and finally made my debut as writer-director with “Theena” in 2001. After this came “Ramana” in 2002, “Ghajini,” the Tamil original in 2005, and the Telugu “Stalin” in 2006.
Q: All your films have had superstars — Ajith, Vijaykanth and Surya in Tamil and Chiranjeevi in Telugu, and you managed Aamir Khan too. How is that?
A: Pradeep Rawat, who had played the villain in the original Tamil version of “Ghajini” and has now done so in the Hindi film too, had worked with Aamir in “Sarfarosh” and “Lagaan” and it was he who suggested that I meet him. Aamir Khan watched “Ghajini” and loved it but told me that Salman Khan would suit the role better because of the physique. But I told him that if he could build a body instead, the film would look fresh to Hindi audiences, because Salman had done such characters often. Aamir then asked for a few days to think about this, and finally agreed to do the story.
Q: Recently the producers of the original tried to stay the release of the film through the court. Why was that?
A: I don’t know what the problem was, but probably it was something to do with the Hindi remaking rights.
Q: We are very curious about what “Ghajini” means, for the main villain in the Tamil version was named something else.
A: It’s like this, sir. “Ghajini” is how we in Tamil Nadu pronounce the Afghan invader Mahmud of Ghazni’s name. He tried to capture India 18 times. So the concept fitted as the hero, despite his short-term memory for 14 minutes 52 seconds, never gives up. So in Tamil Nadu, anyone who is persistent is thus referred to as a “Ghajini.” When we were making the Hindi version, we had another title in mind, but Aamir thought that the same name would be ideal because of its punchy feel. And so we named the villain by that name to justify it in Hindi!
Q: What are the other changes in the Hindi version?
A: Well, A.R. Rahman had not done the music of the Tamil film. No one other than Asin, Pradeep and me were repeated from the Tamil unit. But the main change in the script was that in the original, Pradeep had a double role, of the main villain and of his twin brother who was his right-hand. But after release, the feedback I got was that the dual role was unnecessary as it served no dramatic purpose. So the Hindi film has only one main villain. Aamir wanted me to make the Hindi film exactly like it was in Tamil, and not improvise. Along with Piyush Mishra, our dialogues writer, he was invaluable in translating my script and dialogues into Hindi.
Q: What kind of subjects excite you as a filmmaker?
A: All my films have had different subjects. “Theena” was a love story of a hoodlum, “Ramana” was about a professor’s crusade against corruption, “Stalin” was on humanity and “Ghajini” is a revenge drama where the victim was also fighting himself because of a disability.
I am a fan of the films of K. Bhagyaraj, Bharathiraaja and K. Balachander, and would like to make more hit films with fresh stories and if possible many newcomers. I strongly feel that a script can make even an ordinary story interesting. That and the treatment are the most important. Technology and other things come later.
Q: Isn’t it true that you are scripting a Shah Rukh Khan home-production?
A: (Smiles) Let me finish the script first, sir!
Q: Why do you think that the Hindi “Ghajini” met success in such quantum?
A: Sir, in my life I got to interact with all classes of people. But from those who spend 50 paise for a ticket at touring theaters in villages to NRIs who buy one ticket for Rs. 500, there’s however one common point — human emotions. When we watch joy, sorrow or clash happening in a neighbor’s house, we just see everything from the window. But when it happens to us, we cry, we laugh and we get involved. So basically, the screen-to-audience distance should be very less, sir, and we should feel that what we are watching is happening to us and our family!
Q: Now that’s a lesson that no film school teaches any aspiring writer-director.
A: (Smiles broadly) Yes, sir!
COMMENTS