Mani Ratnam Says He Doesn’t Know Film Making Mani Ratnam

Mani Ratnam is considered to be a legend of the Indian Cinema, but even after three decades of his movie making, he feels that he still doesn’t know film making.

Mani Ratnam landed into  Indian film industry in the year 1983, when the dimensions of  art of film making were still unexplored. His first movie was Pallavi Anu Pallavi in Kannada language, with Anil Kapoor in the lead role. Since, then he has never looked back and has achieved the unachieved in the Indian Cinema.

Presently, he is busy giving interviews to media for his much awaited movie ‘Raavan’. He says, every time he starts shooting for a new movie, he has to start working from the scratch.

Ratnam says “In every film, I go back to square one. When I did my first film, I didn’t have formal training; I didn’t work under any director. I really didn’t know how to make a film.”

He further added “So I thought, if I make two-three films, I will become an expert and be able to walk through anything. But after 20-odd films, I still don’t know how to shoot a film. I still struggle, but the most enjoyable part is not knowing and trying to find something."

The director has a strange habit of not watching his old movies and says “I don’t watch my old films like ‘Roja’, ‘Dil Se’ because I only see mistakes. I see five minutes of the film and I am scared I will start finding mistakes in them.”

He further adds “I can only talk about him since ‘Yuva’ when I first interacted with him. Even then I did not do something very drastic, we just made him play the character without worrying about anything. In this film his character is much larger than life -- it needed a bigger portrayal, flamboyance. He has been able to do it much convincingly.”