Fifty Shades of Films

AN EXCLUSIVE COLLOQUY WITH DIRECTOR ASHWIN SARAVANAN ON HIS FILM JOURNEY FROM MAYA TO CONNECT

- ISHWARIYA KRISHNAN

Why did you choose cinema? What made you a writer and director?

As a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch films at home, but I was more into reading fictional books. I started to write short stories as a way to express my creative side. Over time, I added a visual medium to my storytelling and that's how I made my first short film. From there, it was developed into making films.

How do you prepare yourself before every film?

For writing, I read quite a few books depending on the story that I am working on. I read a lot of books that kind of come under the theme, that explore the concept because of a particular subject. For direction, I look at a lot of photographs. I like looking at images, photographs and paintings just to get visual inspiration and just to crack how the look of the film can be.

Nayanthara's first solo hit was Maya, which was your first film. Was there any pressure to set the same standard, or were you confident she could carry a film entirely on her own?

When I start a new film I usually don't think about what I have done before or what I need to do to make a film better than the previous work. Every film stands on its own and that's how I look at it. So, when I made Connect, the main objective, or rather, our particular approach to work was just to make an effective film that kind of tells that particular story the best way possible.

And your films have female protagonists. Even though these aren't the conscious characters you pick... how do you feel making womencentric films?

I don't think they should be called women-centric films because we don’t call films with male stars male-centric films. I think this tag needs to go away and I don't believe in such tags or names. I think they should be called just ‘films’.