The filmmaker talks about the commercial material in his upcoming Ajith-starrer ‘Valimai’ and how he came to direct the actor in three consecutive projects
The first meeting isn’t always the best. Tamil filmmaker H Vinoth knows this very well.
In 2017 his successful Karthi-starrer. She met actor Ajith Kumar for the first time on the heels of Theran: Adhigaaram Ondru, At the time, Vinoth was selling the actor a script that featured a hero with shades of grey. Although Ajith was not very keen on it, he insisted on making Hindi a hit. rose in Tamil. “He wanted to do something that I thought I was unable to attempt,” Vinoth says over a telephone chat, laughing. “That meeting didn’t go down well.”
Read also | Get ‘First Day First Show’ our weekly newsletter from the world of cinema delivered to your inbox, You can subscribe for free here
But that is history now. Today, Vinoth has become one of Ajith’s favorite directors and is fast becoming one of the popular filmmakers of Kollywood. He has already completed two films with the star: Nerkonda Paravai (remake of rose She finally did it) and the upcoming Pongal release Valimai, is considered one of the biggest projects of 2022. The story doesn’t end here: Vinoth will team up with Ajith again and Producer Boney Kapoor For his next project, which makes it three consecutive projects from the same team. Excerpts from an interview with the 40-year-old filmmaker who dreamed of Tamil cinema:
lead us to the day you first heard the script Valimai To Ajit…
I narrated the one-liner of the story. He was impressed that it was socially responsible and was sure that it would become a film that would entertain all audiences.
The last time you worked with him in a film was a remake… was there an inherent pressure? Valimai More “mass”?
No, there wasn’t. The story we chose first had all the elements of a massive, commercial entertainer.
The story has a real life connection, we hear…
As the topic prominently involved bikes, we started researching and stumbled upon the story of how the late CM Jayalalithaa directly appointed a policeman as a racer. We tried looking for him to hear his life story, but we could not locate him. We have taken that one incident as a small inspiration Valimai,
,Valimai The making’ video has grabbed a lot of attention, especially the shot of Ajith falling and later getting up during the bike ride sequence. How did you go about shooting it?
to catch what was happening during bike sequenceThere was another bike in front of us, in which the camera was installed. We also had a car running in parallel to shoot the background and side visuals. The cameraman sat in the car, and instructed Ajith through a Bluetooth speaker inside his helmet. We were shooting all this on a seven kilometer long road, in which I had taken stock from the beginning. When the crew did not return within the stipulated time, we reached there. Seeing the crowd around, I assumed that they were checking whether the shot was caught well or not. On reaching closer I saw that the bike was broken and Ajit sir was injured. What was such a happy thing was that in spite of this he reported for the shooting the next day, lest the work gets delayed. We put this video to give hope and inspiration to people and send the message that things will get better despite the challenges.
What do you think you liked most about teaming Ajith for three back-to-back projects?
Well, he has done it before, with director Shiva (Ajith did Veeram, Vivegam And faithful with Shiva). If Ajith feels comfortable with a person, he prefers to work with him continuously. I myself have told him this many times: ‘Sir, you should work with other directors as well. Many assistant directors have written stories for you. If you work with him, he will have a bright future like me. He agrees, and he is meeting several other directors as well, but believes there must be a spark to come together as a project.
From your first meeting with him as a new filmmaker to now working in three films, how different or similar is he as a person?
Every commercial director dreams of working with big names, but as a star, Ajith was humble enough to take me by surprise. He even served me coffee! I am now going to do my third film with him, but the excitement of watching him has not diminished till date.
Does he have a favorite quote that he often repeats on set?
He knows when I am down and when things are not going according to plan. Whenever this happens, he will come towards me, pat my shoulder and say: ‘Everything will be all right.’
How happy are you to make a film that has a high star value?
I am fully aware of this, and the challenge is to exploit it as effectively as possible. I am not here to take cinema to the next level. I am here to take my life to the next level, and I have chosen my path for it. It’s a simple demand-supply concept: working with a star, knowing what she wants and what her fans and audience want, and delivering her to the best of my abilities.
As a movie watcher, what attracted you most about cinema in your growing up years?
I was a big fan of Rajinikanth in my young days. until release Padayappa, I queue up for FDFS tickets outside cinemas. Look at the sight after the tickets are over… There will be a hundred slippers scattered all over the counter. Then there will be a lot of excitement.
Your directorial journey is what the film industry would describe as a ‘dream run’. Do you feel like there is too much pressure on you too soon?
I’m 40 now, so I don’t feel that much pressure. If I had started my career very early and all this would have happened I might have felt the pressure.
Do you think the pandemic has changed the way we think about films and shoot?
For the first time the world talked about social distancing, as filmmakers, we were thinking about how to film the lead pair next to each other, and how to shoot the crowd. We have come a long way since then, as we have realized that there are many ways to do things. The pandemic has taught filmmakers to do things that we have already done in a more effective manner keeping in mind the safety protocols.
When you entered the film industry, you must have had some dreams regarding the genre of filmmaking. Do you think you have achieved them all?
I would not describe myself as a filmmaker who has a lot of passion for cinema. I treat it purely as a profession. I have no big dreams; I just want to make sure that the producer earns enough and the audience paying for the film is satisfied and exits the hall for entertainment.
,