Words matter. These are the best Vetrimaaran Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Visaaranai’ reflects a stark reality from which you cannot shut yourself out: that is its success.
I am a serious filmmaker, and I see the whole process of filmmaking more as a piece of art.
I don’t find anything black and white; I find grey in every person, and that is what excites me.
There is a huge market ready to accept good Tamil content.
For the role of 50-year-old Sivasami in ‘Asuran,’ Dhanush has put in phenomenal effort. With his extreme level of dedication, he pulled off the challenging character effortlessly.
I do films for the common man and identify myself one among them.
Slum children eat crow’s eggs for nutrition yet nobody respects this common bird. It’s the exotic birds which fascinate all.
Whatever film it is, the geography has to be right. If I cannot establish it, I’ll get lost. I wouldn’t even understand it in the first place! I hence visit a place and decide what can be conveyed from where; how that can be incorporated in the story.
For me, in any story that I take, the antagonist is more interesting and multi-dimensional.
I always feel that my films ought to teach me something about life.
The budget of ‘Vada Chennai’ is nearly Rs 60 crores.
A script writer usually manipulates his characters in accordance to the script.
We should protest to ban NEET altogether.
Actually, after three years, I realised that the opening scenes of ‘Polladhavan’ were inspired by ‘Lolita,’ in which the lead character says, ‘Why did I meet her? My life would have been different had I not met her.’
I like to keep my films close to reality.
Vada Chennai 2′ needs a big budget.
If a film can’t excite me and teach me something about life, then it is not worth pursuing.
My mentor is Balu Mahendra.
It is much easier to do a film about something that the audience readily knows about – say, cricket. It is much more difficult to write a film based on golf.
The best part about an actor is that they should firstly be receptive and secondly be expressive.
My films are a personal reflection on the impact that the state – the system and the world – has on me.
When you are adapting a book to a visual medium, you tend to leave a few things and add a few new ones.
One of my staff members told me that after the release of the film, whenever a custodial death is reported, people say – ‘Another ‘Visaranai.’ This is the kind of change that I am looking for; it should hit you hard.
We all have to consciously make efforts to identify our roots and nurture them.
Craftsmanship and logic is key to any movie-making.
It is a challenging task to adapt a book to screen presentation and you will not be able to satisfy those who read the classic novel.
I wasn’t happy the way I completed ‘Asuran’ or abandoned the film as it isn’t complete. People are liking it and it’s making money and I’m glad but I’m not happy with how I had to finish it.
I’ve always said that the more ethnic you become, the more international your film becomes.
And I don’t want people to think that I make movies based on other films.
Cannes Film Festival prefers political films. We have to target certain festivals based on our films.
When you’re a filmmaker or a scriptwriter, you face a lot of challenges while making a film. And when you produce it, you have to put in an extra effort.
India is a conglomeration of different states with various languages, tradition, and culture for each.
I don’t believe in one slow panning-shot to show a place. It should unfurl in the story itself.
We’d like to explore the prequel idea. I think it would be best suited as a web series on some digital platform. The prequel will be called ‘Rajan Vagaira,’ and it will track the rise of Rajan’s character in ‘Vada Chennai’ and how he built his empire.
Once, a man at the customs duty check at the Delhi Airport asked me a question in Hindi, and I told him that I didn’t speak the language. He got angry and said, ‘How could you not speak in Hindi? Hindi is our mother tongue.’ I told him that it wasn’t my mother tongue. He got furious, and made me wait for over 45 minutes.
Vada Chennai’ is a proper mainstream film, told in a sensible way.
I can’t write about someone who is unlike me in all senses-physically, emotionally and socially.
Going international is my game. I’ve always wanted to do it, and after ‘Aadukalam,’ I got to meet Anurag Kashyap, the face of alternate Indian cinema to the world.
Manikandan is a complete filmmaker and knows his job well.
AJ’ is a very special movie to me. I have been watching Dinesh and Rajkumar from their initial days, and have witnessed their evolution. The film talks about the bond shared between a father and a son who wants to fulfil his father’s dreams. It’s a cross between a comedy of errors and a political satire.
For me, every film is a learning process. After each, I take time to unlearn.
In Toronto, the film festival is like a carnival… entire families come to it.
When people told me that ‘Polladhavan’ was a remake of ‘Bicycle Thieves,’ I wanted to laugh because comparing ‘Polladhavan’ to ‘Bicycle Thieves’ is a disgrace to the latter.
Rajkumar was the winner of ‘Naalaya Iyakkunar Season 2,’ and I was impressed with his short film. He joined me as an assistant when I started the pre-production work for ‘Vada Chennai.’
I can’t describe how I make a film. It’s organic.
When we belong to a community and learn things that are no way related to our society, we live as unwanted entities in that society.
The violence in ‘Visaranai’ is based on reality.
The younger generation of filmmakers is concerned about our roots, rather than making films with characters plucked out of the cloud or some English DVD. Actually since 2000, Tamil cinema is going through some positive changes.
Characters, conflict and geography are things that must be considered while making movies from adaptations.
Primarily, a festival is a platform to sell films that are not meant for the mainstream audience. Cultural exchange is also important aspect of a film festival.
