Interview: AR Murugadoss

Waiting. It will be interesting. Just like some of his films.

Thupparivaalan

It is blatantly obvious the interview took a very long time to set-up and that you were angered with your cameraman, from the first three pictures. The fourth picture is a clear indication of your frustration. You considered doing paragaayapravesham on your camera-man for a fleeting second, but decided against it, considering you were sitting near murugadoss.

That fifth picture makes me believe you wanted to tie your collar button as you thought you weren’t formal enough. You couldn’t do it yourself and Murugadoss offered to do it for you. You couldn’t believe it. South India’s leading director had offered you to do your collar button for you. This was a career highpoint. But, being a true tamilian, you refused. And Murugadoss chuckles and says
“I was kidding, haha. You really thought I was going to do that?”. You gave him a cheeky smile that belied a sense of disappointment. Isn’t it all that happened?

Or did you sing?

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brangan

Thupparivaalan: Mysskin should make a movie about you 😂

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Thupparivaalan

He already did. Jeez, is it really that tough for lesser mortals to connect the dots?

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Raj Balakrishnan

September 24, 2017

It will be nice if transcripts of the interviews can be published. Sometimes it may not be possible to watch the videos, reading it could be easier.

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ramvaradan

Once I sat with a detective in a train journey. Infact, I knew of his credentials only later mid-journey.. He did a brief stint as an IPS officer, and could’nt digest ennui that came with it.So, he started his own …First few assignments he got were (based on Mumbai) marriage proposal fact checks and fidelity probes from the yound married couples. One thing I could tell from his demeanor was : he was very focussed, intense but not very judgemental. 2 interesting things happened… he gave Rs 50 for an idli parcel at a station, got the parcel .. but never got the balance money back. But he never fretted about it. It was almost as if it did’nt bother him. Next, when the TTR came he reported an incident to him, and asked him to alert the police. He told TTR about a girl being harrassed within the coach several coupes ahead of us. I too witnessed some college kids boisterously raggedy type sitting close to a girl. The TTR checked and came back to say, “Nothing of that sorts, the girl is fine and reports no issues.” .. 2 hours later, it actually happened. The only twist was the college kids were the once who saved the girl. The molester escaped by then. I reported this back to the detective who had dozed off by then..He smiled and told : “Don’t worry I got a picture of him. will send it to the authorities.” .. I did’nt speak to him the rest of the journey.

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brangan

The video is up (below the pics).

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Srinivas R

Nice interview, loved the fact that its in Tamil and the sub titles were good too. ARM seems to be a man who says what he believes. I wish you had asked about how the loosu ponnu heroines in his movies completely spoil the fun and why he feels compelled to have them

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Ananth Padmanaban

Srinivas: In another interview (link below) with Sreedhar Pillai, ARM admitted to the loose ponnu stereotypes in his movies..

There is a natural humility in his responses. For a big director, he doesn’t defend himself on these things

On a light note, ARM has made Sreedhar Pillai and BR, the two Peters of Tamil Cinema to speak in Tamil in his interview.. 😉

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adi

The man oozes sincerity. Loved the way he spoke about how he came up with Ramana. He seems like a person who is well aware of his strengths and limitations. Good choice of questions BR 🙂

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Arjun Dev M

Sir, while discussing all the heroes he has worked with you didn’t mention Sonakshi Sinha in Akira. Any specific reason?

Also, it would have been fun to know about his working relationship with Anurag Kashyap. Maybe you deliberately left that out sir cause of time constraint or some other reason.

Sir please don’t feel I’m telling you how to do your job – it can get annoying when a faceless nobody like me gives u opinion on your work

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sanjana

Nice interview. Good questions and good answers. He should take some risks now that he is established. But one failure will bring down the brand.

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MANK

is his English really that bad ?.

It was very interesting to hear how much thought he puts in to the designing of his films, how he makes sure that the right balance is struck between the massy elements and telling a good story. i see potential in him to be a great (serious) masala filmmaker

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shaviswa

This interview was excellent. Glad you chose to do it in Tamil unlike the previous interviews. Most people in the Tamil film industry are not very articulate in English. ARM came across as a very sincere filmmaker who knows how to make commercial films.

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bart

There were intriguing things that he said which makes the “South Indian” (mainly Tamil, Telugu and Kannada) masala films very unique:

The design of a hero and his surroundings to decide on his character, mannerisms etc. and then comes the story itself (Ramana)
The chiseling of “image” of the hero cast in. Looking into his previous movies and then trying to break the “set” image through costumes, mannerisms etc. (Ghajini)

The story and its characters do not come first at all in his thought process. It is the hero, image, build-up, punches, toning out of the loudness that takes the precedence. Very insightful interview 🙂

A TED session (if not a book) awaits to be done on “Mas(s)ala – a masterclass on movie making in South India”.

P.S.: I would’ve loved to hear on “alabastor automaton” heroines (yet to check the Indiaglitz link above), plus his takes on the plagiarism charges (the case of “Kathi”), Technician choices (Harris) amongst others

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Aadhy

The skeletal storylines of his movies (which later turned out to be more mainstream fare), are very interesting. Especially the ones he wrote for Dheena and Ramana (Umar Mukthar one) could have been fascinating films if they hadn’t been adulterated by commercial requirements.

I also quite liked the snippets and images of movies being displayed as they’re being referenced in the discussion. When it’s accurately done, it adds context to the unfamiliar viewer (for instance Surya is shown using his left hand when the director talks about making that his trait). Shout-out to editor (or whoever is responsible) for that, though I’m also taking serious offense at not showing the parts where you seemed to let go of the singer in you.

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Uncouth Village Youth

Good interview. ARM is one of the few directors who can stand at the intersection of mass,class and crass with aplomb. His movies have always been entertaining – I have never flipped out my phone during his movies. Although some scenes are a bit senti, the movie itself quickly moves on and doesn’t dwell there and demand that you cry. Ajit should seriously thank ARM in each of his movie credits. Please continue interviewing people in the language they are most comfortable in – this brings out the thoughts in the raw form.

I reiterate my request for a transcript – remember I was the first one to raise this,lest someone else walks off with the credit.

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Sanjeev

Feel that there is some sort of Friction between Suriya and ARM.. U could have asked him about this.. I think both of them are not in talking terms.. Vijay-ARM is good combo but for me Suriya- ARM is the best.. ARM in 2010-11 was so lavish in raving about Suriya saying he is like a drug and addictive blah blah.. But all together it has stopped.. In fact the very mention of Suriya made him slightly uncomfortable

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GODZ

@Mank is his English really that bad ?. It does not matter. Does it?

I see potential in him to be a great (serious) masala filmmaker – He is Already. It’s just that he is not in the ranks of Shankar and Rajamouli although he has full potential to do it. Maybe as he said, he should come out of his comfort zone which is directing big stars and try something new.

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MANK

GODZ, i was just wondering how he communicates with the likes of Aamir and Akshay. you know , it must be tiring communicating only through intermediaries.

And no i dont think he is just there yet, He does very well with a thuppaki kind of stylish light masala, but in a more serious masala fare like Kaththi, the serious portions does not fully gel with the more lighter ones. Like Vijay singing selfie pulla on moment and next time he is lecturing against mobile phones.

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Rahini David

MANK: There are some rules when we combine English and Tamil in a sentence.

We say “Violent aaidraan” or even maybe “Violence panraan”.

But ARM says “Violent panraan”

We can say his English is pretty bad and he needs the help of others to communicate to Aamir. But the thought that this may be a hindrance does not occur to him at all.

Like the bubblebee that does not know that aerodynamically he should not be able to fly, he just goes on with his career.

That is what is great about this interview.

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harish ram