Vetri Maaran talks about taking Visaranai to the Oscars

Posted on March 1, 2017

My first video interview for Film Companion.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Copyright ©2017 Film Companion.

Posted in: Cinema: Tamil, Interview

37 Responses “Vetri Maaran talks about taking Visaranai to the Oscars” →

Dhanda Soru

March 1, 2017

Very illuminatinive interview, BR. I used to hear a lot about how the Oscars were less about cinema and more about marketing, but I never really had an idea as to what extent. Until I saw this interview. Makes me wonder if the likes of Mahesh Bhatt and Naseeruddin Shah are indeed right in saying that we should stop hankering after the Oscars. I mean, why not let a film speak for itself? Do you really need to run from pillar-to-post to convince someone of a film’s award-worthiness?

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lakshmi

March 1, 2017

Enjoyed watching your interview with Vetrimaaran. I was impressed by his frank admission that he wouldn’t be so ‘fervent’ the next time around at the Oscars.

Also, wondered how you would’ve described the ambience and setting if you had to write about it. Missed that part of your writing.

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KP

March 1, 2017

To formal and stiff you need to loosen up a lot more.

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MANK

March 1, 2017

That was an auspicious beginning Brangan. A very special guest , some really good questions resulting in a very absorbing interview. You did fine as an interviewer 😃

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blurb

March 2, 2017

Great interview, BR.

It makes me wonder though, how many in the Tamizh film industry are actually comfortable giving an interview in English?

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B o o.

March 2, 2017

Wow BR! Big move! Good luck with everything! Fantastic beginning. Looking forward to more.

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fertilizedegg

March 2, 2017

Long time reader (albeit closeted) and a great fan of your work. Loved the interview especially some of the impromptu follow ups.

I’m not sure how Vetrimaaran is not cynical yet but I have become one after learning about this Oscar circus. You are forced to go in circles, throw money and hire PR firms to manipulate just so a niche set of oldies can watch and judge a fabulously made film. Sucks big time but I’m glad for Vetrimaaran’s exposure. Film makers of his stature should be making movies with maximum reach.

Looking forward to plenty more interviews.

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Anisha

March 2, 2017

Very good interview, BR. An informative interview with a fascinating guest. But damn, all that work Vetrimaaran had to go through in terms of finding people, working under strict rules and regulations (whisper campaigns sounded like the underworld mafia), and spending money for a simple poster seemed too much, at least for me.

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Sowmya:)

March 2, 2017

An interview that was actually interesting and informative about an aspect of the industry unlike the usual superficial ones. Looking forward to more such!

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maru

March 2, 2017

brangan, loved the interview. Vetrimaaran’s Oscar tale was fascinating and he was a great pick to kick-off the series. You did a nice job leading the conversation and I think you’ll get a lot more relaxed and comfortable as you do a few more of these. 😀

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Uma

March 2, 2017

Wonderful interview. Loved the movie and the interview as well. No wonder a movie with a happy ending like slum dog Millionaire won…it was not necessarily a great movie

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praneshp

March 2, 2017

Nice start @brangan. It sounded like you were rushing to reel off your sentences in the intro, but the interview was great. Especially because you asked nice questions, then shut up and let Vetrimaran speak. Thank you!

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sanjana

March 2, 2017

Very good beginning. You are impressive and unintrusive.

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brangan

March 2, 2017

Thank you all. 🙂

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R VENKATARAMAN

March 2, 2017

good and instructive conversation and Vetriman explained things very well. I wonder whether one question might have been asked about the winner (Iranian film THE SEPEARATION) and his views on this film. i have seen many Iranian films and some of them are very good with new ideas in film making.That they do these film under strict social and religious restrictions it is worthwhile to learn from them.

good first episode. keep it up.

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R VENKATARAMAN

March 2, 2017

sorry the winner is not THE SEPARATION (Perhaps I was impressed by this film when I saw earliler. the winner was THE SALESMAN

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Filistine

March 2, 2017

Vetrimaran seems to be very comfortable talking in English. And his lack of angst while talking about Bollywood versus the rest of the Indian Film industry was refreshing. At the recent Bangalore Lit Fest, Adoor G spoke passionately about regional, but his diatribe against Bollywood sounded a bit churlish.

Great interview. Its interesting that Vetri says “thamizh” and you say “tamil”. A sign maybe that he thinks in thamizh while you think in English? 🙂

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Amit Joki

March 2, 2017

Transcripts please anyone 😞😟😟😟

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Lav

March 2, 2017

Wonderful interview. enjoyed it and forwarded it to all my friends.

Had no idea that one had to do so much PR to push the movie to Oscar’s top-5. As someone said, you were a bit nervous in the inro-scene but then later seemed relaxed and more focused. 🙂

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Venkat

March 2, 2017

Marketing plays a huge role not just in the case of the Academy, but almost in every festival (and even the Indian National Awards). One of the reasons why Mani Ratnam remains the most ‘visible’ filmmaker to emerge out of TN is that he knows what it means to ‘market’ a film. Lagaan got nominated at the Oscars because it was at the hands of a ‘smart’ marketer. Kaaka Muttai became a ‘mainstream’ film because it was at the hands of Vetrimaaran and Dhanush.

Filistine: At the recent Bangalore Lit Fest, Adoor G spoke passionately about regional, but his diatribe against Bollywood sounded a bit churlish.

Frankly speaking, this is not the first time. 🙂 Years ago, he openly accused Prakash Jha of playing favouritism; the jury headed by Jha gave away the Best Actor Award to Ajay Devgn (they both were working on a film at the time). More recently, he slammed the Ramesh Sippy headed jury for bestowing upon Baahubali the Best Film Award last year. At times, we need such voices.

BR: Rangoon apart, any chance if you could review the Gautham Karthik starrer, Muthuramalingam?

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Vidhya

March 2, 2017
Please please choose such clear thinkers for your subsequent Facetime episodes. I know it is wishful thinking, but atleast for the initial 50 episodes you should be able to get Vetrimaran-like casually incisive speakers.

Everytime VM paused to complete a sentence, I wondered if he would fish around and end up using a lame word – but his choice of words were delightfully apt. (Eng Litt from Loyola? )

This person has a narrative style that is at once catchy, simple yet layered. Not just in his movies, but in this interview and his series in Ananda Vikatan last year. (His mom -Mekala Chitravel used to write novels in Tamil, if my memory serves me right)

As the episode progressed, BR too eased into the discussion and ditched the notes, for a more personalized chat, much seen in the comment sections of his blogs.

Has Dhanush assimilated the style of VM (or the other way around) as their body language, style of speaking, expressions, geniality seemed a lot alike, to me? (Much like the phase where Suriya was affected by GVM mannerisms)

I was apprehensive about this medium taking away much of BRs edge, but so far so good – as I believe it is a good interviewer that can bring out this good an interview from the subject (Though VM stamped his own mark on it)

Thanks for this. My wishlist:
1. Kamal
  2: Thamarai / GVM / Mysskin – from your print interviews
  3: Pc Sreeram
  4: Trisha – no one’s ever asked her sensible questions- always about Vijay, Ajith, dogs, pubs
  5: Mahesh Babu
  6: Alphonse Putharen / Anjali Menon / Vineeth Sreenivasan
  7: Sidharth / Maddy / Arvind Swamy / Dhanush – the first 3 good speakers, the last one a bundle of surprises
  8: New age Malayalam actors (Nivin Fahad Prithvi Parvathy )
2. Naren Karthick (D16)
3. Samantha (well, before she quits… There’s something nice about her)
Nandri

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Rohit Sathish Nair

March 2, 2017

Not that Adoor hates them all the way. He admitted that he did enjoy some outright comic capers in Malayalam itself. In fact, he chose DIleep, the comic star of Mollywood, for his latest film because he liked him in these films

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Raj Balakrishnan

March 2, 2017

Great interview. A real eye opener. Didn’t know that so much marketing was involved.

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Aram

March 2, 2017

Congratulations on a new beginning.

Quick thing:

Since we are introducing South movies to North and throughout India.

When Vetrimaran is mentioning Balu Mahendra it would be ideal to show that he is Sadma director. that way it will make it more real.

Also Anurag talking about Aadukalam and that being Vetrimaran movie (from your previous post) are good titbits to insert to know and respect the film maker for a group which isnt aware of such things.

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blurb

March 3, 2017

Next request: Mani Ratnam for Kaatru Veliyidai. Perhaps — something like continuing CWMR with Kaatru Veliyidai as the next chapter?

Also, I am somewhat against getting multiple people at one go. Just doesn’t work in most cases.

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Jyoti S Kumar

March 3, 2017

BR sir, excellent costume choice, your screen presence was better than the Hindu video review. Maybe a little less pink lipstick next time… 🙄😀. Excellent interview, as described by others on the comment section. I do hope VM does write a book on this experience

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Sala Annamalai

March 3, 2017

Excellent rangan sir. But why “Tamil” and not “Thamizh”?

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brangan

March 3, 2017

There was no lipstick. Quite a few people have commented on this though. Maybe the shine of the light or something.

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Srinivas R

March 3, 2017

Fascinating conversation. Really liked Vetrimaran’s candidness. Hope to see more such conversations

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alok

March 4, 2017

I strongly feel that Visaranaai was, at the least, a much bettet contender than Toni Erdman(which was a fine movie itself for sure) amongst the final five.

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RT

March 4, 2017

About the lipstick thing, it happened to Hugh Bonneville from Downton Abbey also. As you said, could be the lighting.

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Iswarya

March 4, 2017

Finally watched this today and this is such a refreshing start. Thankfully many of the new gen filmmakers and artists seem to be quite comfortable with articulating their thoughts in English. Congrats, BR!

It’s a really ambitious project but definitely very timely. Meaningful, non-PR-plug interviews are hard to find and so this seems promising!

I liked the way he spoke and unexpectedly, the part that affected me most was the manipulated accusation that he beat up people! I know how that feels since one of the plays I directed in college had an audience member (from a competing team, I suppose) yelling mid-performance that the onstage violence was a human rights violation! We all went “What?!” but thankfully my actors continued unflustered! I can kinda sense how that would have fed into stereotypes and could have been used against him.. Terrible the wily politics surrounding the whole show! 😦

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Ramchander Krishna (@ramctheatheist)

March 6, 2017

Terrific interview! Vetrimaaran is always forthright and open! Your interview is kickass. Just the right amount of probing. And taking the backseat to keep the focus on the interviewee. Looking forward to more!

I concur with the others Rangan! Somehow your video reviews feel like someone’s holding you by the collar and forcing you to speak. Your latest FC video reviews do seem a little more casual but still there’s that unshakeable feeling that you’re not on comfortable ground.

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Ramchander Krishna (@ramctheatheist)

March 6, 2017

I knew Visaranai would never win the Oscar but I hoped it would at least make it to the final 5. Cos when you see the kind of films that have won in the past, you kind of know that this is too hard-hitting. Also, it’s not portraying India the way Slumdog Millionaire does, the way Westerners want to see India. When I watched the Oscar nominated short films of last year, a majority of them had war & religious clashes as a backdrop. You can sense their tastes.

It was interesting that Vetrimaaran saw Visaranai as representing the marginalisation of minorities and thereby being relevant to the current times. Cos I thought that was only the first half. Wasn’t Visaranai’s second half meant to make it about the “System”? It wasn’t just minority community members like Dinesh but also white-collared ones like Kishore whose lives are in danger. The “System” is bigger than everyone. Wasn’t that the statement the film was making?

Btw, I loved it when he explained how Balu Mahendra broke the Oscar bubble for him! I highly recommend people here to watch Balu Mahendra’s Kadhai Neram short films. I feel he’s had a huge impact on Tamil cinema, especially given that he’s mentored ppl like Bala, Ram and Vetrimaaran and guided them on their paths to make great cinema.

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Sifterr

March 9, 2017

Vetri Maran was very good with his clarity of his thoughts and his speech. It was an unexpected surprise for me.

I agree with those that say that you come out as a little uncomfortable and not completely at ease in front of the camera. Guess it will take some time to get there!

Somehow, your written reviews in FC does not hold the same attraction for me. Wish your review could appear there like it did in this blog. Miss the written reviews here.

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hari ohm

March 10, 2017

Agree with Vidhya about Dhanush assimilating the style of VM. If you observe Dhanush’s interview with GVM it almost feels they are both the same people.

Regarding the fervent comment I felt VM probably did not use the right word to express what he exactly wanted to convey. I may be wrong though.

Also BR I also felt the stiffness, since I have not met you in person I can not say for sure if it is your normal style or not. Awesome awesome interview. Thanks.

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LN

March 13, 2017

BR Sir, Waiting for your interview with Kakka Muttai fame Manikandan. Please consider

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