That Four Letter Word: BLOG

Ranvir Vinay aur That Four Letter Word

2007-10-20T18:34:00.000+03:00

This happens to be our most fun experience on national television and the most embarassing one. The talk show with Ranvir and Vinay was a blast. It was recorded on the same day as the India-Pakistan T20 final.

Cary and me were in the dressing room watching the last two overs of the match before the show trying not to get stressed out by the fact that we hardly spoke Hindi, only to get all the more stressed by that high-tension thriller...

As the Pakis needed 13 of the last over, the entire crew of Ranvir Vinay aur Kaun including the hosts stormed into the green room. And you can imagine the excitement.

Even the normally cricket-indifferent Cary was all hooked to it and Ranvir turned cynical after the six. But soon Misbah hit the shot he will never ever try again all his life as Sreesanth caught it and the room erupted with screams and celebrations...

What a way to start the shoot...

Yes, it was a sentimental shoot for Cary, Ranvir and me because Ranvir had been part of the film since 2002 ever since I met him and Cary for an interview when they were both VJs. We had come a full circle and now Ranvir was interviewing us.

Truly an honour!

Thank you Ranvir Paaji and Vinay... You made us feel at home and never have we enjoyed digs at us more!

And thanks Darshan, for being the official TFLW TV show tracker/recorder.

That Four Letter Word on [V]

2007-10-19T18:35:00.000+03:00

Thank you, Channel [V] for supporting us and giving us as much visibility as any mainstream film.

That Four Letter in Mumbai

2007-10-15T15:52:00.000+03:00

CNN-IBN and Rajeev Masand were quite sweet to us by covering the release of the film at Fun Cinemas. Rajeev also called me to their studios for a quick chat on independent cinema. Take a look. And thank you, Varsha! :)

From September 28 in Mumbai

2007-08-07T04:06:00.000+03:00

Thanks to Bhumika at Fun Cinemas, we're all set to release in Mumbai from September 28. Watch out for the promos on TV.

On CNN-IBN: Minus 30 with Paras Tomar

2007-08-06T02:18:00.000+03:00

You can find the full episode here. Don't miss Kiruba talking about blogs in it.

Interview on MiD-Day Bangalore

2007-07-25T19:50:00.000+03:00

Thank you, Sunayana, for this half-page write-up... Awesome! Considering you had to jot it all down over phone... You're a rock star!!

For the record, a couple of small corrections/clarifications:

1. The article says 72 per cent of TFLW was shot in 3 weeks.
About 85 per cent of the film was actually shot in 12 days. The 72 per cent stat is about the occupancy during the 3 weeks we played at Sathyam Cinemas.

2. The problem in finding child actors who can speak English without any accent was to make sure that regional flavours don't restrict the market for a universal story. Generally, Bombay audiences have their strict bias against anything even remotely South Indian.

Coming Soon to Singapore!

2007-07-21T02:32:00.000+03:00

I had got an email from Anant Shiva, a friend of Sagaro's, inviting me to send in That Four Letter Word for the Screenplayer Film Festival. Apparently, the festival is only for short films and they have made an exception to showcase TFLW because of its 'making' story, I hear.

All a filmmaker wants is for more people to see his film. (Sagaro: Don't take that to mean that you can put up a copy online if you have one). I'm glad that some of you in Singapore will be able to see the movie.

One of my school buddies and old dumb charades mate Amal Kiran is planning to organise a screening for his students. Amal knows the guys we've based the film on. So it would be interesting to see how he reacts to the film because he hasn't seen it himself yet.

TFLW goes to South Asian Film Festival, Bangladesh

2007-07-20T02:11:00.000+03:00

I just got an email informing me that the film has been selected in the non-competitive section of the South Asian Film Festival, Bangladesh.

I had submitted my film after one of the festival programmers from India had asked me to send in the film.

The festival is between August 1 and 10 in Dhaka and Chittagong. The screening schedule should be put up on July 25 on the official site.

I'm yet to decide if I should go or not mainly because of the political turmoil in Dhaka. Besides, flying there is too expensive and the only other option is to fly to Kolkata and take a bus or train to Dhaka.

I'm tempted to go there because this is only the second International film festival that the film has been selected for after the Premiere in Chennai.

Now, I don't feel too bad spending money couriering films around the world. Each time I send through DHL, it costs me Rs.2400.

I remember filling up the entry form of the Milano Film Festival, Italy in the middle of the night and it took me nearly two hours because they had word limits for everything. Once I hit Submit, I got a message saying that the film DVD should reach them within the next 48 hours. It was 2 in the morning. I rushed out to take my bike and rode to the DHL centre near the airport after packing a DVD with the cleanest inlay cards that were available at home. I got there and found out it was going to cost me that much. I wasn't even carrying that kind of money and since I didn't have much of a bank balance either, I paid partly by cash and partly by card. They said it would take 3 days to reach Milan, Italy and that was a chance I was willing to take.

And then, I got home to do a little more reading on the festival and I found this link that took me to submission statistics. Some 2400 plus films had been submitted last year. This year, they have 2550 entries.

I read that they would select about 12 feature films in all.

I don't think I need to do the math to figure out that I just lost 2400 bucks in one night.

Post Script:
The results for the Milano Film Festival will be out on August 1. If you believe in miracles, please pray.

Thank you Bangalore!

2007-07-18T01:40:00.000+03:00

I have not had a more critical audience.

But they were the sweetest too - they laughed at regular intervals during the film, argued with me quite a bit after the film and then sent me off with the routine applause. The reaction seemed mixed.

Since I didn't know what they really thought, especially after that heavyduty discussion, I asked Hrish to find out after I had left. I wanted to be know if it all there was any point in releasing the film there.

I was totally thrilled when Hrish messaged to tell me they rated the film 6 on 10 at the Roof Top Film Festival, Bangalore.

That's much more than my own rating of 5 on 10. Thank you guys!

Here are some more individual reports - Posts made on the festival by Hrish, Lavanya, Sathish, Thejesh and Vatsap.

Filmmaker/Actor Pawan came up with this wonderful suggestion that could sustain indie filmmakers on the wiki. He said that considering that all of us spend at least two hundred bucks everytime we go out to watch a movie, he said that once in a month we can give that 200 bucks money to pre-order a DVD made by an indie filmmaker. Bangalore has a base of 100 movie buffs interested in supporting indie cinema. Even if each of these 100 get 10 of their friends to do the same, an indie filmmaker would get 2 lakh rupees, which he rightly said, is enough to cover production, post and DVD authoring costs. Let's directly take the film to the audience. Let's just fire the producer, he said.

If Bangalore manages to pull this off and produce Pawan's new film, it will be a triumph for indie filmmaking.

Chennai too needs to do something to set up a network for indie filmmakers. Hopefully, we will have some news by early next month.

I spy a movement. :D

Coming soon to Bangalore!

2007-07-04T00:29:00.000+03:00

Just mailed a DVD of the film to Hrish Thota, co-ordinator of Roof Top Film Festival, Bangalore to be held this weekend (July 7, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., July 8).

Since I have my weekly office meeting on Saturday afternoon, the only way I'm gonna be able to make it to Bangalore is by road.

I bought my cruiser for days like these. Finally, a road-trip on my bike. 700 kilometres (to Bangalore and back) in 24 hours.

Just one minor problem though: the maximum I've ever done at one stretch is 120 kilometres in six hours.

But like I said, I've already mailed the DVD, so irrespective of me making it or not, my film will surely reach there.

Clips from the TFLW Premiere

2007-06-03T23:37:00.000+03:00

For those who missed the World Premiere of That Four Letter Word at the 4th Chennai International Film Festival in December 2006, here's a quick look.

Finally managed to compile the posts on That Four Letter Word from the personal blog and have posted them back here just so that you can easily access on posts on the film in one blog and also be able to keep track of our journey.

We intend taking the film places, so do keep reading for more updates.

P.S: You can access your comments pertaining to these posts by looking up the same date on the personal blog. I have not deleted any of your comments and you will be able to access them there.

That Four Letter Word: Theatrical Trailer

2007-04-01T00:06:00.000+03:00

Director's Cut at Roof Top Film Festival, Chennai

2007-03-27T00:15:00.000+03:00

Maybe it was the laid back setting and I mustered courage to show the survivors of the night clips from the old version of That Four Letter Word. The version we had trashed. I didn't half expect the crowd to be awake for the film we played at 4 a.m. Thank you guys.

Sagaro has a report here.

Here's my own post on the Roof Top experience.

B-A-C-K: Due to public demand

2007-03-08T02:10:00.000+03:00

That Four Letter Word will return back to Studio 5, Sathyam Cinemas this weekend. A few days ago, I was so sure that not more than 20 people would actually wake up to watch TFLW so early on a weekend.

I was so wrong. We had a little over 50 per cent occupancy on Saturday morning. And then, over 80 per cent of the hall was full the very next morning.

Thank you Madras for waking up early on a Sunday and making it to the theatres just to watch the movie.

Due to public demand, we're bringing the movie back at 11 a.m. just for all those of you who complained that 10.30 was too early. So all you guys who still haven't got a chance to see the film, here are a coupla more chances. March 10th & 11 (Morning show @ 11 a.m.)

The advance bookings will open on Thursday and you can book online through that yellow banner on the sidebar towards your right. Since this is a digital film, for best results, do watch it from the back rows. I thank each and every one of you who have seen the film for your support.

If you didn't like the film, I'm truly sorry I let you down. And all those who've seen it three times or more, I can't thank you enough. I'm really touched that some of you have listed That Four Letter Word among your favourite films on Orkut. I'm not sure if it deserves a place there but thank you so very much for being kind.

Painting or Poster?

2007-03-07T03:23:00.000+03:00

I was talking to one of my friends about how people perceive a film like That Four Letter Word.

Some end up reviewing it like it's another mainstream movie or a Hollywood romantic comedy in the theatres. And, some take it so seriously and take it up as their subject of critique.

But thankfully, there have also been many who have seen it for what it really is.

Paintings and posters should never be compared by the same set of parameters.

Posters are designed for a purpose. To deliver a message to a mass. There's a certain amount of slickness in production, boldface screamers, simple smart copy and colourful visuals with instant appeal, tailored to deliver the communication to a mass audience. Or, like most commercial cinema, it aims at giving you pleasure for the money you've paid. But being a whore filmmaker needs a certain amount of shamelessness.

Paintings, however, are just an expression of the artist. Almost like an extension of his thought-process and imagination. Or, like most art cinema, it aims at giving the creator all the pleasure. But, we all know that wankers do it only because they got no takers. So, Is TFLW a poster or a painting?

Neither. As a beginner, I do not have the skills required for a painting. And with my limited resources, I cannot afford the production values a poster requires.

So what is TFLW? The independent film That Four Letter Word, at best, works as a scrapbook.

A scrapbook that's personal, random and straight from the heart. It has these sketches of characters, especially, those you would instantly identify among your friends. It tells you only as much as you need to know, as much as any comic book would tell you about its heroes. It does not say one of these characters is you. It only hints that you could be any of them or all of them at different points in your life. Each character epitomises and personifies one way to live your life.

That sort of generalisation was needed so that we could face off one approach with another. It is this generalisation that has worked with the lowest common denominator among the youth. And it is this generalisation that has made a coupla inexperienced critics call the film 'shallow'.

At another level, this is a film on male bonding. And it is not about the girls and their lives.

The girls are just sub-plots and their role in the film is limited to their impact on the lives of the four central characters (Which is why all posters and publicity have more of the guys and less of the girls). The girls' approach to life and backstory is explained in the comic book right at the beginning of the film. That's all you need to know about them.

In fact, a lot of women have been able to identify with the way the guys live their lives. Because, like Vishal, they sometimes wear their heart on the sleeve. Like Prashant, sometimes they have a head on their shoulder. Like Sunil, they have been confused. Like Zebra, they have sought escape through alcohol.

Like I explained to someone in the comments section of the 'Nishabd' review, we can only judge the depth or shallowness of a script depending on what the filmmaker is trying to say. If Varma wants us to understand the love story between a 60 year old man and 18 year old girl, he needs to show and tell us more than shaved legs.

He needs to give us a glimpse into the conversations that led to the unusual attraction. So what am I trying to say in my film? The only point I'm making through the film That Four Letter Word is that different people have different approaches towards chasing their dreams.

We do not pass value judgements on whether you should be Vishal and listen to your heart all the time or that you should be Prashant and use your head all the time. We are just telling you that even if you are as confused as Sunil is in the film or as escapist as Zebra in the film, life has its ways of bringing you solutions.

All TFLW says, like Sunil often says in the film, is that God is just the scriptwriter. It is upto each one of us to do what we want with that script. We have to direct that script the way we want to do it. It is up to us whether we want to keep the sad scenes short or indulge in the fun scenes for a little longer. No matter how we direct that scene, we have no control over the new twist that the next morning brings with it. So if you are like Vishal, you might still end up becoming Prashant and if you are Prashant, you might end up becoming Vishal.

Watch the film with this perspective and you'll know what I mean. We don't have the answers. Life has them.

That Four Letter Word is about the people we know so very well. Ourselves.

Since the film is just a scrapbook intended to trigger memories of your days at the crossroads of life, I urge the bitter critics of the film to tell me what they think is missing from what they ought to know.

Because, honestly, that would really help me while scripting my next film, something that I have been doing off late. As I do that, I'm tempted to design a "poster".

The review I was waiting for...

2007-03-01T13:21:00.000+03:00

Not because it says the movie is really good. It doesn't.

Besides, we've had many other reviews where people've liked the film.

This review is special because it is honest and well, critical.

Baddy does not know this but I had a sleepless night before the press show wondering what he was going to say.

Because, it is criticism from people you respect that always matters. I've said this before on many occasions, he is the best in the business. Raja is murderously good but Baddy's reviews are always more likeable given the down-to-earth tone he uses even while trashing a film.

I didn't realise until someone (I think some disgruntled anonymous reader) pointed out recently that my reviews sound patronising. Point well taken.

So the morning of the press show, I went to bed at four and I just couldn't sleep till 6.30 a.m. And I had to be up by seven again to go check the projector. You can quite imagine the anxiety when I landed up at the theatre to find out that the lip-sync was completely off. And, the picture quality was grainy. Thankfully, we were able to fix all of that before the commerical release.

Was he going to hate it? I had never been more nervous all my life. It was like my favourite teacher had just taken my answer-paper and he was going to grade it in the next 91 minutes.

If he failed me, I knew I had to go back to school and learn everything I learnt all over again. Because, he's the teacher. He knows his stuff. He can't be wrong. After the movie, when I was playing host to Vikram and attending to the NDTV crew, the only thing on my mind was what was Baddy going to say.

Vikram was obviously nice and said he loved the movie, just like Suriya had said it earlier. And I was never sure if they meant it because stars are polite to everybody. When Baddy came out of the hall smiling, it was a relief.

More when he said, "I had a good time. It was okay. What do you mean it's a not bad film? It was really okay."

He said he would talk to me about it at length. But, I wanted a progress report and see how many marks I got. I requested him if he can review it at leisure.

Within a week, he did. Thank you, Baddy.

This gives me the courage to start on my next film. We're starting in May.

Last two days!

2007-02-28T00:51:00.000+03:00

If you haven't seen it yet, here are your last two chances to catch it in the theatres.

Thursday and Friday. 4.30 p.m.

We're still averaging about 85 per cent in terms of collections in five days though, in spite of having 'Eklavya' and 'Music and Lyrics' in the same slot as us.

Sathyam Cinemas had already committed to Warner Bros for The Departed for this week's release. Also, there's 'Ghost Rider' and Ram Gopal Varma's 'Nishabd' fighting for slots from Friday. Deepa Mehta's 'Water' is waiting in queue too but might not make it for this Friday.

So, they called me today to tell me that they are shifting TFLW to the weekend morning slot (That's so early that I'm sure no one in my target audience will bother waking up on the weekend but if you are an early riser, hey! You can still catch it during the weekend morning slot!)

For the rest of us normal regular people, it's the last two days to catch the movie.

You can book your tickets by clicking the banner on the right of this page. So there. Another classic example of how difficult it is for indie cinema to survive when big banners and studios are fighting for slots. We surely need more multiplexes, hopefully equipped with digital projection systems.

I should add here that Sathyam Cinemas has been extremely kind to us. They've given us all the marketing support we needed and valuable ad space.

Thank you Supriya, Andy, Nandini, Valli, Ashwini, George, Chetan, Rajkumar, Bhavesh and of course Swaroop and Kiran!

You guys have done your bit to support a small film in an industry dominated and dictated by studios.

We are in the process of finalising nation-wide release plans and I will have details shortly. Still contemplating if we have the resources to do road shows across different cities and if it makes sense in the first place. Especially, because promotions for a theatrical release are so much effort and a lot of money. At the moment, it doesn't seem worth it for one week.

Besides, the revenue for independent cinema, in any case, is not from the box office. In fact, the box office accounts only for not even 5 per cent of the revenue potential. The major revenue for independent films is from satellite and TV rights.

And then, there's also DVD and video rights. Also, there's revenue potential from International rights that could turn out to be a bumper, before we finally put it up on the Internet.

People have been asking me about my next film and I wish I could start right away. But this whole distribution exercise is turning out to be an eye-opener. I got a call today from someone who wanted the film for South Africa. They hadn't even seen the film. She wanted to know how much I wanted for the film over phone, hardly a minute into the call. It sounded like a prank. It probably is. But, the point here is that there are so many markets around the world and so many places that we can reach simply because we've made this film in English.

But it's time to put the channel in place. What's the point of making another independent film without putting a system in place? I strongly believe that once we've established a proper channel and forge alliances with companies and agents around the world, we're in for a digital revolution.

Indie cinema can be industry by itself. We started out Made in Madras inkOperated! with the vision of making every first time filmmakers dream come true. Which means, if you have a script with fresh thought in it, an original idea, passion and conviction to make your film, we will produce your movie.

Alright, I don't want people mailing me starting today. So let me clarify, that's our vision for tomorrow.

First, we need to take TFLW around the country. And then, the world.

An insider's account

2007-02-27T16:40:00.000+03:00

My art director Incognito has put up a post on what the film means to her.

Even on days we didn't have crew availability, we still had Incognito double up as First Assistant Director. I still remember we shot the game show scene with just the actor, the cinematographer, Incognito and her co-art director Preethi at Preethi's house.

The girls have done a phenomenal job with a zero budget. Well, almost zero.

Thank you Incognito, thank you Preethi.

The Monday test!

2007-02-26T22:31:00.000+03:00

We passed it!!

95 seats today! YES!!

There were three seats booked until noon. And then 60 were sold till four. Exactly 70 at 4.20 p.m. for the 4.30 show. We finished at 95 seats today, that's a 65 per cent collection on a weekday.

Even a mainstream film like Eklavya (finally saw it, review coming up soon) had only a 60 per cent collection for the matinee.

We had full houses during the weekend but the weekend is no indication really for how good a film is doing.

Even bad films do well on the weekend. It's the Monday test that we were anxious about because on a Monday afternoon at Sathyam, you can get tickets to any movie you want.

Which means, 95 people chose to watch That Four Letter Word over 'Ekalavya' and 'Music and Lyrics.' So there it is, we passed the test.

That makes it a 87 per cent opening for the first four days. Thank you everybody who's seen and supported this small little film about regular people, their ordinary lives and their ordinary dreams.

You've just given the courage to many young filmmakers to go ahead and make their own movie. Do spread the word. Tell people how you found the film. I'll link even the bad reviews as long as they don't contain spoilers.

Here's one that calls it an average film. It probably is. Or, maybe it is a bad film. Maybe, I don't know. You tell me. And tell me why. Like my favourite critic writes in his latest post on reviewing:

"What I try to do is write about why I felt about a film the way I did. If I liked it – why? And if I didn’t like it – why not?"

Oops, before I forget, Congratulations on the Indiebloggie, Baddy! You guys have read many reviews/blogs that have said nice things and I think that's the problem.

You have great expectations from someone who's made his first film with four lakh rupees and 18 days of shoot. But thank you for that faith. I'm thrilled with the way Madras has responded.

Independent cinema and indie filmmakers have reason to celebrate.

TFLW for dummies!

2007-02-26T13:52:00.000+03:00

When a filmmaker makes a movie, there are parts he spoonfeeds and underlines, just to make sure the audience gets it.

A movie is a movie at the end of the day, you watch it to entertain you.

And there are parts of the film, a filmmaker makes for himself and for those who love cinema.

Cinema, of course, is not always a part of the movie.

Usually, the more commercial it gets, the more it is manufactured for the lowest common denominator and sometimes, dumbing down happens at the expense of the cinema in the movie.

So when I made TFLW, there are parts I made for the lowest common denominator of my already niche target audience. The youth at the crossroads of life.

I had to throw in a few laughs to balance out the serious introspective content of the film. That Four Letter Word was not written as a comedy. It is a light-hearted feel good coming of age film. Those who walked in expecting that, did end up liking it. So it is indeed pleasing that the target audience has recieved it well.

We've had a phenomenal opening for an independent film. And the audience response in the theatres, especially during the climax, is reason to celebrate. It's working. And then, there are parts of the film we designed for who like their cinema. The types who analyse films and appreciate the finer aspects of filmmaking. That is the aspect that's largely gone unnoticed.

This post will just talk about some things we did with the film that many didn't notice. Susan came up with a fairly balanced review, but for the wordage skewing in favour of what's wrong with it. But it's also probably because my newspaper does not want to be seen promoting its own employee.

Since she brought it up, I think I must start with the secret behind the film’s colour scheme. No, it's not about Wohoo! See what we can do with digital technology! It's because the film needed that feel.

The film was designed as a bridge between life and film. (The tagline goes: Boy meets girl. Fact meets fiction. Reality meets fantasy. Life meets film). Everything one should know about the film is right there. ‘Boy meets girl’ is your typical romance genre.

It is ‘Fact meets fiction,’ for obvious reasons.

It's borrowed from life and exaggerated (hence the comic book technique to alienate and facilitate a willing suspension of disbelief and to establish right at the beginning that you are not going to know too much about these guys apart from what you need to know)

Reality meets fantasy is that journey the characters make from dreaming to actually going and getting it. This is based on real people alright, but is clearly not a docu-drama. It is all about elements borrowed from life meeting elements that happen only in film.

The film tries to build a bridge between dreams and reality, between the boy and the girl (we specifically leave her mysterious till the end so that anyone watching that movie from Sunil's shoes can fill in his dream girl in that blank we've created.)

So if you try to represent life, what are the techniques you would use cinematically? Hand-held camera, surely. What else? Hidden cameras (candid camera like we used for the car), CCTV (the voyueristic camera in Zebra's room, at the beach during the six minute scene)... Did you realise that CCTV footage is black n white?

When you try to represent film or what is larger than life, cinematically, you tend to use saturated colours to create a sense of alienation and manufacture willing suspension of disbelief.

What are the other colour schemes that films provide us? The immediate connect would be the black n white Chaplinsque feel. So when you build a bridge between dreams and reality, fact and fiction, life and film, you deem it fit to cinematically represent that bridge through a colour scheme that represents elements from both life and film. So the film tends from reality to fantasy, using another colour scheme associated with surrealism.

We chose blue to create that surreal feel and complete that palette that ranged from black n white of video (that represents life) to scratched black n white film (that represents film). At another level, films are about fulfilling your fantasies.

Most of us go to the movies to see the hero win, to see the boy get the girl, to see good triumph over evil because these things don't often happen in life.

We like the escape films provide from reality. In TFLW, the characters have the same problems you do (and hence the realistic texture and treatment when they are having their talk, the camera is voyeuristic and non-intrusive, like a surviellance camera) but the reason they go to the movies is for the gratification of their dream and the escape films provide us (and hence the larger than life texture and treatment towards the end of the film, the scratched black n white film and the comic interludes... the chase in the end) and the Super-imposed text in the end tying up everything that the film stands for.

That Four Letter Word: Life.

The text in the end roots it back to your reality, spells out how movies are different from life itself.

Our writer friend (I can't call the kid a critic, at least, not from that "review") from New Indian Express displays her intelligence and phenomenal talent by observing: "As Sudhish himself admits at the end of the film that these things did not happen to people in real life."

Her IQ clearly is a notch higher than someone else from her paper who reviewed 'The Inside Man' with a brilliant punchline, after raping the Spike Lee flick. Oh, the famous last words of that review went: "Who was the inside man anyway?" Sorry, I digress.

That Four Letter Word, Life, is always full of those moments. The real, the surreal and the larger than life. We carefully picked scenes that represented these elements and painted them with the colour code from our palette of black n white, blue sepia, colours, saturated colours, burnt out colours and scratched black n white film.

All romance movies are about boy getting girl. We used the classic coming of age setting for this love story/stories of the lead guys, created willing suspension of disbelief with the comic book feel and then went on the life-meets-film trip.

We knew not everyone would understand but this was only for those who liked the cinema in the movie.

We had to use this palette to be true to the spirit of our narrative. That's why this is independent cinema. We tell stories that we want to tell, in a way we want to tell and to an audience we want to talk to.

That's also how it differs from mainstream cinema that caters to a mass. That's also why this is a multiplex film, a niche film, intended for a specific audience.

The screenplay's depth and how much we wanted to tell you about the characters too, was by design. We didn't want to give them surnames because we didn't want to get into their ethnic backgrounds. We wanted to keep it as general and as global as possible and that's exactly why we use the additional comic book narrator. A comic book will tell you Superman flies with a blue cape sporting his underwear outside without bothering to tell you why he does so.

Because, it's a comic book and it shouldn't be taken seriously. The events were made to look random to give it that feel of life in itself. The drag race was to illustrate that Prashant has tried to talk to Vishal before but Vishal being the guy who lives by the moment, is more interested in the challenge the moment presented him with, rather than the one posed by life itself.

And we had to show Prashant make at least one attempt to talk to Vishal before that huge six minute conversation right in the middle of the film (the scene for introspection, as Sunil calls it, the scene that defines the film... that scene that IS what the whole film is about). Basically, if these guys have been friends all along, why didn't Prashant tell Vishal what he did during that scene in all these years that they had been friends? Because, Vishal wouldn’t listen, he would race or do something else that the moment had in store. The race was to establish that equation.

Vishal would always have an answer. He would just ask him to calm down and chill, like he did at the pool table.

Prashant is the voice of reason, the personification of mind. Vishal is all heart and just cannot relate to the way Prashant lives his life.

That's also why Prashant figures that what he has to tell Vishal, he can only tell by addressing Sunil. So when Prashant tells Sunil, he's not expecting a drama King like Sunil to listen, what he tells him is actually directed at Vishal. And Vishal understands that, which is why he shoots back at Prashant and talks in defence of Sunil.

The nuances are all there, maybe our critics aren’t equipped adequately to understand that cinema is all about the sub-text (What you don’t tell but show or insinuate). Every scene is there in the film for a reason.

We would've rewritten the script over a thousand times in five years before we shot this version. And hey, we're in the select club of filmmakers who actually use a bound script.

I urge these critics to watch the movie again [especially, since they didn't have to pay the first time around :)], with an open mind. What I mean by an open mind is: Don't go in trying to like the film or hate the film... just take it one scene at a time.

And kid, remember what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Independent cinema needs an open mind. Not an empty head. Independent filmmakers, unlike other filmmakers, put in their own money to make their film, without the backing of corporates or sponsors or studios, out of their love and passion for cinema.

Like Kamal Hassan once told me, "If you don't give the first man the courage to do something different, why will another even try?"

I'm glad the film is working with the audience.

I also hope this will soon prove that: If I can make a movie, anyone can.

Things you didn't know about That Four Letter Word

2007-02-25T07:11:00.000+03:00

1. We finished shooting 90 per cent of the film in one stretch of 12 days. We shot in all for about 18 days (including reshoots and patchwork) and not years as many people think.

2. TFLW was written in 1999 as Made in Madras, as a Tanglish film. But given the scope and the universality of the theme, the producer suggested we keep it global and stick to English.

3. The script was written over email. Murugan was in the US and he would rewrite most of the lines I wrote. He’s the best rewriter. And yes, I’m the better writer.

4. Purab Kohli was originally supposed to play Vishal. But because he was shooting for Supari and unavailable, he told me that Cary would fit the role better.

5. We first shot a trailer for TFLW in February 2002 at Pune, thanks to Abhishek Shah and Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication. The film then starred MTV VJ Cyrus Sahukar, Channel V VJs Cary Edwards and Ranvir Shorey, my buddy from college Pradyumna Singh Chauhan, my college junior Usha (who then went on to become a VJ) and a friend who later went on to join Radio Mirchi and came to be known as Mirchi Suchi.

6. Early July 2002, Cyrus Sahukar backed out two weeks before shoot saying he wasn’t getting leave. It was only a month ago that I had met Abbas during the press show of his Hindi film debut, 'Ansh'. It was so bad that in the interval, he was all shook up.

We drove to a friend’s place during the break and I showed him the trailer. He had loved it. So I called Abbas. He said he would check dates and call me back. Two minutes later, he said he was in. We met one hour later and had a six hour long meeting when I narrated him the script and gave him a copy. He then told me how he had secretly wished he was part of the film when he saw the trailer. So Abbas was in, Sahukar out.

7. Ranvir Shorey became busy with his play Blue Mug and wasn’t available for the shoot. And we were convinced no one else can play the role but him or Cyrus Broacha.

A guy sitting next table at Qwikys walked up to us after eavesdropping into our conversation and gave us Cyrus Broacha’s number. We called Broacha religiously for a week before we found him at home. He liked the role, promised us dates in what turned out to be the busiest month of his career.

During that month, he hosted the UN AIDS conference at Barcelona and shared stage with the then US President Clinton and had to rush to Dubai for the Chotta VJ Hunt. After 10 days of shoot, we still didn’t hear from Broacha. We had made frantic random calls to all major hotels in Spain from the Iway opposite Residency Towers to trace him. We had scheduled his shoot on day 12.

On day 11, we took a break and went for ‘Bend it like Beckham.’ During the interval, Cary suggested we call Ranvir and check. It seemed like a ridiculous idea because Ranvir was upset with us because we couldn’t wait till he finished his Blue Mug schedule. Besides, Ranvir did tell us that he didn’t have leave left and Channel V would not give him anymore leave. But we didn’t have any other option for Zebra, so we called him.

Two days later, he flew into Madras and completed his role in five days. It just happened that he had resigned from Channel V merely two days before we called him. Life.

8. All the outdoors of the first version of TFLW were shot in Manipal because we wanted a university town feel. We even got fancy number-plates done that said TFLW 01, TFLW 02 and so on…

9. About 95 per cent of the film was ready and complete as per schedule but due date hassles with our stars, we couldn’t get all of them to come to Madras at the same time. Pradyumna had injured his knee so badly that his physio banned him from any sort of exertion. He underwent physiotherapy for nearly six months in Madras. Meanwhile, Suchitra became Mirchi Suchi and didn’t get leave. So we waited for the stars to give us dates.

10. The producer’s little daughter had a little tumour in her brain. So he had to shift to the US and we put the project on hold for a while.

11. Mid 2004, we decided we were going to reshoot the film because we didn’t like it. We studied it extensively and realised that the fundamental problem was with the script. The 144 page long script had resulted in 136 minutes of talking spread over 72 scenes. It was like a radio play because the actors said everything and there was hardly any visual subtext. We figured we had to make it racy. The new script was 106 scenes in 90 pages. We decided we can’t bother the producer. So Abbas took charge as Executive Producer and we entrusted him with the responsibility of getting funding.

12. In November 2004, a couple of my friends got together and decided to make a movie. Three months later, they had a movie. It was a no-budget movie called ‘I just don’t get it.’ It was about two guys making a movie without any money. Due to a few technical glitches and a redundant screenplay, they decided not to do anything with the film. But I was inspired.

If these two guys can go around and make their dream come true in three months, it’s high time I did something after sitting on my ass for five years. In January, I told Abbas that we should shoot with whatever resources we had. He wanted time because his marketing guy wanted two more weeks to get the cheques from corporates. We had had no luck in over six months, but we gave him time till mid February. Mid Feb, he asked for one more month, we agreed and told him that we will start shoot on March 15, no matter what happened. We had two plans. How we would shoot with money. And how we would without it. Early March, Abbas gave up on trying to find sponsors.

Meanwhile, we got everything ready for shooting with available resources. First day of shoot was on March 16 at the British Council. We had a two day break before we resumed shoot on March 19.

13. After about four days of shoot, on March 23, Abbas and me had to part ways because of creative differences. It was a painful decision to make because Usha had to leave to the US on April 13 and wasn’t coming back for at least 8 months.

Parting ways meant we had to reshoot everything and lose quite a bit. Abbas brought with him Shakti, a replacement for Pradyumna, an experienced cinematographer in Rajesh Datar, free food from his friends in Gallopin Gooseberry and free cameras provided to us by Panasonic. So in less than 48 hours, we recast and regrouped to catch up with the schedule. Aashil, who works with IBM Bangalore, sent me the Sprite ad he had done, over email. I instantly knew he could play Sunil. Thanks to Vijay for recommending him, Aashil is a natural. He’s brilliant. Watch him in TFLW and you are bound to like him.

14. The evening before Aashil was supposed to land in Chennai for the first day of the shoot (our third attempt to shoot the movie and second within a week), my grand-dad died.

My folks had to leave town but Mom left me her ATM card. She said: “Go ahead, make your movie. He’s dead and gone anyway.”

Thank you Mom, because if we hadn’t started the film that day, we wouldn’t have finished shoot before Usha had to leave to the US. And we wouldn’t have released the movie by now.

15. Prashant was cast one and a half hours before his first scene. We had auditioned over 20 people that day and had given up hope. And, Praveen got it right the first time. Praveen was the fourth guy to play Prashant after Pradyumna, Shakti and Tejas. We've shot Scene No.55, the drag race scene 4 times in all, with different actors. Oh yes, Tejas was an actor who ran away after one day of shoot because he wanted to spend time with his girlfriend. And he disappeared without telling us and we were left guessing for two days. Extremely unprofessional fellow, this Tejas Sreedhar. Praveen was the exact opposite. What he lacked by talent, he made up with hard work, dedication and discipline. He puts in a lot of work and it is not easy for a young theatre actor used to saying his lines out loud to underplay.

16. The climax scene was shot on April 1. We needed 20 cars to create a traffic jam on New years eve. But people didn’t show up thinking it was an April Fools joke. We had all of seven cars that night. But we had to go ahead and finish shoot.

17. We finished shoot on April 4. And Vijay edited 25 minutes of the film featuring Usha by April 8, just so that she could dub and leave to the US. And she did. It was all per plan.

18. The Editing was jinxed too. Vijay was editing the film at home on his computer. He lost all the data, everything he had edited, including the 25 minutes we had completed of Usha, when his system crashed. Finally, we had no choice but to move to a professional editing suite. Pradeep, my very first assistant director, had gone on to become a producer with SS Music and later Marketing head and Kosmic Studio. He got us a good deal at Kosmic and we got Vijay to come and edit in a professional set up.

19. Editing took a lot of time. Editing the same footage the second time around could be a pain. Ask any editor, he’ll refuse to do it. The colour correction was done at Vijay’s own new studio AgNO3. (Coming soon: The post explaining the colour palette used in the film, something that our critics just didn't get!)

20. Vijay studied film at Vancouver Film School. Vijay and Pradeep were the guys who made ‘I just don’t get it’. The guys who inspired me to go ahead and make my film no matter what. Pradeep did the cinematography for the final schedule of four days.

21. For the scene where Prashant teaches Sara to drive, both actors Praveen and Paloma didn’t know to drive. The scene required them to almost bang into the car. It was a difficult scene to shoot only because out of the four people who would be in the car (Praveen, Paloma, Pradeep and me), only the guy holding the camera knew to drive. So he was instructing Praveen and Paloma how to drive, while shooting.

Frustrated with Praveen not looking scared enough while acting, Pradeep kept the camera on the steering and drove recklessly (while shooting at the same time) just to make the fear look real.

In the process, he ended up actually banging the car. We’ve used that shot in the film. The car he banged was our camera unit car. Oh wait, the best part is that the car we were driving was Pradeep’s.

22. At the editing table, after showing it to a different sets of people from the target group, we cut down nearly 14 pages (Amounting to nine minutes from the 100 minute Director's Cut). The TFLW DVD will have not just these deleted scenes but also the entire movie we trashed.

I still personally like many scenes from the old version. Too bad we couldn't finish it. But this version is infinitely better.

100 minutes before the first day first show!

2007-02-23T14:25:00.000+03:00

The moment of truth is just a few minutes away.

The ultimate test for a movie.

How will the audience react?

I'm going to be there to see it for myself.

Unlike a huge Sathyam or Devi hall which has about a 1000 seats, Studio 5 has only 148. I should be able to hear the whispers, the snide remarks, the snores and even the slightest hints of annoyance.

That sort makes me a little curious but no, I'm not nervous anymore.

To be honest, I was absolutely nervous the night of the press show. I went to bed at four. But I just couldn't sleep. I was wide awake till 6.30. I had set my alarm for 7 because I had to be up and reach the theatre by 9 to check the projector installation.

Managed about half an hour of sleep, got to the venue to get the shock of my life. The print wasn't even half as good as it was at the festival premiere. I had prepared things to say to introduce the film but the picture quality completely threw me off gear. My blood pressure shot up and I was wide awake, almost a nervous wreck.

But thanks to the efficient people at Real Image, we were able to fix the mysterious lip sync problem that surfaced last minute. The picture quality was terrible but people who showed up just blamed that on the low budget production values.

After about 20 minutes into the film, I could finally relax because not only had I forgotten about the bad picture quality, the audience behind (the college crowd) seemed to be having a good time. They were laughing at regular intervals.

At least at the places I was hoping they would.

Vikram was kind enough to make it though he had a late night shoot. Sanjay Pinto was sweet enough to send the crew from NDTV.

Sashi, my original producer, finally got to see it on the big screen. And as expected, we only heard only nice things. Obviously, people who come for your special show aren't going to be mean to you on your face.

Anyway, NDTV did a story on us and it appeared yesterday. It made it to the top 10 stories of the day and will be featured at 6.30 this evening. So do watch out for that. Vikram too said nice things about the film. He loved the dialogues and the natural flow of the screenplay.

Ganesh and his friends seem to relate to the movie. That is very heartening because the film was made for exactly that kind of an audience. People at the crossroads of their life.

Then, yesterday, we got our first negative review from this blogger who wanted to like the movie but ultimately thought it sucked. I don't know how old this guy is, but I hope and pray he's not in college or just out of it. If he is, I should probably take his opinion a little seriously.

Else, there is nothing to worry about because we don't actually expect people outside our target group to like it. Like he says, it is about ordinary people mouthing very ordinary or bad lines. What if, THAT *exactly* was the idea of the film?

There was another one that came out today in the New Indian Express. The writer sounds like the age group I'm talking about. So, I respect her opinion, if not her "review". Without quite intending to, she gives us the biggest compliment when she says it does not look like there was a script in the first place. Again, what if THAT *exactly* was the idea of the film? Hmmm!

Though it is tempting to link the story to showcase her opinion on the film, I don't want to because it contains spoilers. (It's high time they taught that in school along with the other basics of criticism: Thou Shalt Not Give Away Spoilers!)

I'm not sure how many people know that a tagline usually tells you what to expect from a film.

So here it goes: "Boy meets girl. Fact meets fiction. Reality meets fantasy. Life meets film."

Hence, there is a possibility that the film was designed and structured to blend life with film.

So maybe when we give you a film that's as random as life and about ordinary people, you shouldn't be expecting to see anything more or less.

For all the films I ripped apart when I was little, maybe this is poetic justice.

As they say, what goes around, comes around. I think these bad "reviews" (more like opinions) are a good thing because they are putting things in perspective. They provide a balance for all the nice things people have had to say all along. So it's all cool really.

It probably will do a lot of good to bring down the hype. With great hype comes great expectations.

So all you people heading to watch this movie, remember, this is a small film.

This is a debut film. This is a 5 on 10 film, a "not bad" film. A lot of people have liked it. Some haven't. Those who came with an open mind have liked it. Those who came with preset notions, clearly haven't.

The good news for me is that we've managed to fix the picture quality and get back the old print by noon today. That's such a relief because it was the technical quality I was really worried about.

Finally, got some time to breathe. I'm increasingly convinced about the content of the film with every passing day, seeing the positive response it has generated from people who matter. Just another hour to go, so I'm off to the theatre. And hey, you can book your tickets here. :D

The "speech" that I couldn't deliver

2007-02-22T05:44:00.000+03:00

I had prepared this speech during that sleepless night before the special screening. But with all those technical glitches, I got really worked up and never got around to say the things I wanted to say.

Thanks to my laptop, I still got that speech-copy!

So here goes:

Well, thank you everybody for making it here so early in the morning. I'm a morning person and I absolutely hate traffic. So I really appreciate that you've all come.

You probably have no idea of how nervous I am right now. I mean, this is one of those days I wish I were on that side of the stage.

I would've come late and missed this whole talk thing and given my track record of all the movies I've ripped apart... may God bless all those filmmakers... I hope today is not the day for poetic justice.

Well, today is going to be an acid test for the film. Because what you say matters, what you say is going to make people watch or not watch this movie.

Before I leave you to watch the film, I just wanted to go back to the day it all started and thank a few people who're as guilty and responsible as me in producing this film. To begin with, Murugan Subramanian, my best friend and co-writer.

I still remember the day we sat and discussed how different we were as friends and yet we were the best of friends. We all wanted different things from life and had a different approach to go and get it.

We then realised that it wasn’t just our story. It was everybody’s story and everybody’s problem: What do we want to do from the rest of our lives? What is the price we are willing to pay? To put it in two four letter words. What next? I’m sure we all ask that question to ourselves every once in a while.

At the end of that talk, all he said was: Alright, we’re going to write this movie. And you’re going to make this into a movie because it’s a lot of work. If you don’t, you are so dead. I’ll strip you to your underwear and chase you all along Marina.

Now that’s a sight you don’t want to see. Aren’t you glad I didn’t give up? It’s taken 7 years for this day to arrive but yeah, here it is.

Not just Murugan, all my other buddies from different parts of the world chipped in to make my dream come true. Raghu, Arvind, Sukumar, Nadeem, Ravicharan, China, Ghirijah... I haven't slept so I know you ll forgive me if I've left you out.

I would also like to thank the man who gave me the faith. My original producer Sashi Chimala, who I ironically met at the special show of Mission Impossible 2. This has been our little mission impossible. We shot the movie once with his money. And then trashed it completely for assorted reasons including non availability of the stars.

It would’ve been criminal to take money from him again. So we shot it the second time around. With the only thing you really need to make a movie. Conviction.

At this point, I need to thank the guys who taught me what conviction was all about, the guys who inspired me to go ahead and make my film no matter what.

Vijay Prabakaran, my editor, is a filmmaker himself. He’s currently in the hospital fighting leptospirosis. Lucky for him, or I would’ve inflicted him with another viewing of That Four Letter Word right now.

Yeah, I’ve made him see the film for over a 1000 times. He had to edit it. He didn’t have a choice.

Now, Vijay made a film with no money at all, along with his college buddy, Pradeep Kalipurayath. It was called ‘I just don’t get it’. They studied together and were meeting up after a long time and they decided they were gonna make a movie. Three months later, they had a movie. Shot with no money at all. Okay, I’m exaggerating. They spent about 20,000 rupees.

Vijay and Pradeep made that movie that never saw the light of day because of a few technical glitches. That gave us the courage. If these guys can do something within three months after a chance meeting over a cuppa tea.

Surely, with the home-work we had done on the script, we could do it too. We just had to make people believe in the script. And thankfully for us, they did. So thank you Captain, thank you Pradeep for the inspiration.

Actually, Pradeep was my first assistant director when I started pre-production in 2000. He then went on to do a lot of things including the no-budget film called “I just don’t get it” before he came back to the film as the director of photography.

I would like to thank Abhishek Shah, founding partner of Be Positive 24, my brother and the first AD of the first film we made for all the years he has shared my dream.

I would like to thank my family that’s stood rock solid behind me.

They aren’t here now because I told them we’re coming back to see it, paying for our own tickets.

My Grand-dad died the day before we were supposed to shoot this version of the movie.

My Mom left me her card and said Go ahead, scratch it, make your movie. Thank you Mom, thank you Dad. Because, if not for that, we wouldn’t have actually got started on the film.

I would like to thank my entire team. They are like family too.

Cary and Usha have been in this film since 2001. So has my production manager Archana, who hasn’t come today because she’s just had a cute little baby.

Cary, our official carrier, has driven us from Madras to Bangalore to Mangalore to Manipal all these years for location hunts. He’s the official carrier because he also carried tripods, played everything from spotboy to playboy and also contributed the biggest set in the film: his car. Thank you Car-y!

Bad joke. I know.

Thank you Ush. She was leaving for a long holiday to the United States on April 13, 2005.

Now, we had planned to shoot between March 19 to April 5 and then do a quick edit of her scenes so that she could dub and leave. It turned out that we weren’t able to shoot before March 26. To meet the tight deadlines, we worked 20 hours every day. Sometimes 22. But we wound up shoot on April 5 as we planned. Thank you Ush. For keeping your promise and dubbing before you left.

There is a story behind every person who’s been in this film but we don’t have the time nor do I want to hype this up.

We ll do more of that after the movie.

For now, I’ll just shut up and let you watch the film.

The team from Sathyam Cinemas

2007-02-22T01:22:00.000+03:00

Andy, Valli and Supriya form the team from Sathyam Cinemas that diligently worked on promoting the film. Here they are, with Paloma, Cary and yours truly.

Director-Producer-Leads-Star

2007-02-22T01:17:00.000+03:00

All Smiles: That's me, Vikram, Cary Edwards, co-producer Sashi Chimala and Paloma Rao

Praveen being interviewed by NDTV

2007-02-22T01:15:00.000+03:00

That's Praveen Bharatwaj who played Prashant in the movie.

Two Thumbs-up, says Vikram

2007-02-22T01:03:00.000+03:00

Vikram at the special screening of TFLW on February 21, 2007, right outside Six Degrees.

The venue on the D-Day!

2007-02-22T00:11:00.000+03:00

Six Degrees: The venue for the special screening for select invitees and media.

Wednesday morning 10.15 a.m.

2007-02-19T21:36:00.000+03:00

That image, at Six Degrees on February 21, will be followed by 91 minutes 13 seconds of the movie that's been part of about 25 per cent of my entire lifetime and probably all my youth.

It is a special preview show for the media and opinion leaders. Do give me a call at 9382118103 and book yourself a seat if you feel left out.

Else, we have the commercial release on February 23. And, you can contribute to the cause of independent cinema and buy your own tickets. :D

TFLW: Reviews

2007-01-10T14:21:00.000+03:00

Just thought I'll start compiling reviews/opinions on the film.

"Out of the 175 films last year, the movie that impressed us the most..."
- CBFC

"Bull's Eye on debut" - Bhama Devi Ravi, New Indian Express

"...ribald humour interspersed with some sweet moments..." - Divya Kumar, The Hindu

"Original, bold, intelligent. Emotional without being sentimental." - Chetan Shah, Filmmaker.

"After the first 15 minutes, I forgot I was watching a digital film..." - Gautham, Filmmaker

"I wish I had done this movie" - Suriya, Actor

"Very interesting cinema... Super" - Revathy, Filmmaker-Actress

"Non-conforming to any genre, a non-narrative structure" - Hariharan, Filmmaker and Director of L.V. Prasad Film and TV Academy

"An auteur film. Candid. Natural." - Madhan, Film Critic and Cartoonist

"Chaos Buddha Rating: 7 on 10" - Kausik

"This four letter word - Good" - Sandhya

"A refreshing change" - Nirenjan

"A sensational movie ... Must watch" - Karthik

"A much recommended watch" - Vimal

Do let me know when you post your review, will link it here.

Thank you for showing up!

2007-01-07T12:31:00.000+03:00

The standee outside Coffee? welcoming people to the community screening. As you can see, he's saying: Admissions Open!

The Director@Community Screening

2007-01-07T00:59:00.000+03:00

Also seen in the picture is my best friend and co-writer Murugan Subramaniam.

The lovely people who showed up at the Community Screening

2007-01-07T00:56:00.000+03:00

Most of them are bloggers and you probably know some of them.

Shot@Coffee? Shown at Coffee?

2007-01-07T00:52:00.000+03:00

TFLW@Coffee?

2007-01-04T17:30:00.000+03:00

The first community screening of That Four Letter Word will be held at Coffee? (Off Greenways Road, near Music College) on Saturday, 6th January at 4.30 p.m.

All are welcome. Entry is free. Seating is on first-come first-served basis.

You will have to buy your own coffee though.

Disclaimer: The picture quality won't be all that great -- DVD projector, home video print.

Premiere Report on SS Music

2006-12-28T00:04:00.000+03:00

VJ Paloma in a double role - host and actress!

That top of the world feeling: Updates

2006-12-25T01:09:00.000+03:00

1. The New Indian Express carried this very kind story on the movie. Thank you, Bhama! I'm yet to apply for leave for shooting 'Ullu Banana'/Watcha Gonna Do? and I hope they don't send me off on permanent leave. He he!

2. I spoke to Revathy finally. She called me a coupla days ago and told me she had been busy and hence unable to talk to me earlier.

Guess what? She liked the movie too, overall. She called it "very interesting cinema" but maintained that "it could have gone an extra mile." She was very disturbed that it did not. I asked her to tell me why she thought so. She said that she wasn't able to put a finger on it yet. She wants to watch it again.

When she heard we made it for four lakhs, she couldn't believe it. "Super," she said. "Super," still in disbelief. She, however, thought that the English we Indians speak on camera does not sound natural.

And contrary to what a lot of people have said, she thought TFLW is no exception. I would like to believe the conversation is natural because four out of six of my actors speak this way (and in English) at home.

Revathy liked the treatment, the characters and she didn't like the way Sara's character graph ended. But she also noted that different people from the audience will relate to different characters and not like some of them because of who they are.

3. I got hold of some unedited footage of the premiere shot by Times Now. Waiting for the rest of the clips. Got to hunt it down from CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, SS Music and Galatta.com. Will upload the clips soon. Watch this space.

4. We are most likely to go in for an internet release by March 2007. My concern is how secure DRM really is. STAR is coming up with a broadband portal and they've promised me a secure release. My friend from STAR also suggested that it maybe a good idea to release across platforms on the same day. We're working on that idea. The other issue over internet release is that we've made a low budget film and the poor lighting shows in a couple of scenes. When you watch a low res version, you maybe put off by the technical quality. Saptarshi who saw it on DVD and in the theatre that all the scenes he thought were lit badly looked very good on the big screen.

5. Sandhya insists that this is not her just gushing about the film. I disagree. :) Thank you Sandhya!

That top of the world feeling!

2006-12-24T05:03:00.000+03:00

Finally, I find time to blog. :D

Sorry folks, I’d been away for a bit. Was a lil busy hovering around the stratosphere, with complimentary residency at cloud number 999. Now, I know what being on top of the world feels like. The word is ecstasy.

Yeah, I’m high. Without a drop of alcohol.

It’s that top-of-the-world feeling that fairytales are made of.

In the last 72 hours, we’ve done the rounds on Radio City, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, Times Now (none of which I got to see yet much to my luck and crazy routine) and The Hindu. The premiere of my film THAT FOUR LETTER WORD happened at the Chennai International Film Festival on December 21 at the Film Chamber and I’ve been ballooning in space ever since.

Sheer joy. Absolute bliss. Nothing else matters.

It’s that feeling that makes you grin so much that you don’t even mind your face being temporarily disfigured. (Yes, this demonstrates how much say I had over that review or photograph: Absolutely none! He he! Lucky for me, my paper hates to promote its own employees and I'm happy they buried it on Page 9 where very few would've got to see that pic!)

We’ve had such an amazing response to a small, simple slice of life movie that we made at a budget of a small car.

Suriya, went on camera and told news channels that he wished he were a part of the film and would’ve loved to help out at least behind the scenes. “I would’ve liked to produce this film,” he said. When I told him not to bull-shit to me, he said he’ll tell me all that he liked about the film if I had the time. And he did. He spoke for nearly 20 minutes recalling each and every scene and moment he loved. “We can’t do these things in Tamil cinema,” he said and asked me why I chose Madhavan for the cameo and not him. Yeah, thanks to my own newspaper, the surprise cameo is no longer a surprise but I would hate it if people went to see the movie for him because he just appears for a few seconds.

Gautham Menon was at his candid best when he said the film took a lot of time to get to the point. (Not that there was any point in the first place!) He said he was hooked somewhere halfway and it did something to him. He particularly liked the last 25 minutes of the film and we had a discussion on the single-long shot scene that lasted six minutes where all we see is four guys sit by the beach and talk about their lives. He wished I had used close-ups. And I thought close-ups would’ve killed that scene. I did shoot close-ups and we tried them out on the editing table but realised the scene had maximum impact when it had the candid camera effect. Which is also why we didn’t use a score for it.

He also said: “After the first fifteen minutes, I forgot that I was watching a digital film. So I’m sure there was something in your characters and narrative that got me engaged. I could make out that your heart was in it and that you’ve made exactly the film you wanted to make. This is not a film that could’ve happened by accident.”

Gautham was the only person who did not like the editing style in the film and wished the scenes were clipped tighter.

Filmmaker Chetan Shah loved that six-minute scene that Gautham wanted close-ups for. “It puts you in the league of Oscar winning directors,” he said (of course, in jest). “That one scene alone is enough for you to get a producer for your next film,” Chetan believes. He sent me a couple of messages that read: “You have made an original bold intelligent and cinematically fine film. Loved the natural dialogue and acting. And vivid characterisation.” “Hope the non-linear narrative will find a mass audience that will appreciate your flair and sensitivity. In admiration and support – Chetan.”

Having said that, he also had a couple of areas of concerns: the originality of the music and the picture quality. Since I had sat with music director Asif when he made the music, I can vouch for his creativity. (At worst, he’s probably inspired and recreated some tune but he has certainly not ripped it off a foreign movie soundtrack).

The picture quality in a couple of scenes is a huge area of concern for us. But we hope Real Image helps us out with its expertise and tech support. They couldn’t finish Gamma correction before the premiere and I suspect that’s the reason for the high contrast.

Director Hariharan told me that it was a “very interesting film” because he couldn’t slot it under any one genre. (If I were to slot it, I’ll call it my brand of feel-good) and he thought it had a “non-narrative structure.” “I never got the feeling I was watching a movie. It was like watching real people with real problems. The dialogue was very natural and the lead actors were very fresh,” he said.

Both Chetan and Mr.Hariharan almost used the same words. They both felt that only when they saw Zebra, the larger than life character in the film, break down, that they were reminded they were watching a movie. I’m tempted to remove the background score from that scene now because ‘Evam’ Sunill is such a fine actor and the dramatic background score in that scene seems to jar with the otherwise realistic feel of the film.

Film analyst Sreedhar Pillai, however, thought that Sunil as Zebra was the pick of the actors. He didn’t like the technical quality of the film and shared Gautham’s view that the film took its time to make a point. He also noted that they felt that way maybe because they have been corrupted by the influence of commercial cinema and the manufactured pace and exaggerated melodrama.

Revathy told my friends that it was a “good start” and “interesting attempt” which makes me believe that she probably means “It sucked big-time, dude.” I haven’t got to talk to her personally but apparently she also told people that we don’t get to see films made like this and that this was a story relevant to young people around the country. Once I get to talk to her, I promise to share with you guys all the nasty things she has to say. ☺

Lensman Venket Ram said he loved the cinematography and the amateur feel actually contributed a lot of energy to the frames.

Vijay TV’s critic and cartoonist, Mr. Madhan said that it was an auteur film that was candid and natural, with very well etched out characters. He said that the film’s problem, if any, was that it was too natural. “It could’ve done with a little exaggeration,” he said. He noted that the overall technical output was better than Mumbai Express (we used the same camera as the one Kamal Hassan used for his digital movie).

He also made a critical observation that he would’ve liked it more if each scene ended with a punchline, like a stand-alone mini-movie. When we wrote the film, we did write it that way. But at the editing table, my editor Vijay Prabakaran came up with a really inventive style to boost up the pace of the slow film. We actually ended up sacrificing a lot of humour for pace but we have absolutely no regrets.

Some of my other critic friends noted that the film did not have depth. I would agree. Because we are only telling the audience as much as they will ever find out about that colourful gang of friends they find at their coffee shop or canteen. They will know who’s seeing who, what they do, what they aspire for, what they wear, how they talk, who’s the opinion leader, who’s the clown and what they ended up as. Telling a story about four friends with different dreams at the same time was a challenging task for us as first-time scriptwriters. We didn’t want to mess up trying to get overtly sentimental. As Chetan also pointed out later, “it was emotional without being sentimental.”

Also we are used to watching cinema where characters hit the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Here in my film, the highest high is getting admission in medical school and the lowest low is not getting in. The maximum conflict and dramatic tension between friends in my film involves them saying “Screw you” to each other and then starting afresh the very next day.

Since the three important characters in the film are not the types who would sit and cry, I had to extract emotional depth from the most unlikeliest of characters: the perceived clown of the pack. As ‘Evam’ Karthik notes, Zebra only becomes “momentarily real” when he breaks down.

For the first time in the movie during that scene, we see him as human, as just one of us. We thought it was important to explore that aspect of Zebra to illustrate the only editorial point of the film: That no matter how low you feel one night, the next morning is a different day. Who knows what it has in store for you.

What Mr.Hariharan also liked about the film is that it does not take sides or preach or tell you what to do with your life. “The best part of the film is that it does not try to tell you anything. It is such a casual fun film that just breezes on, without conforming to any genre.”

A lot of my friends are proud of me, they say I can hold my head high. One of them who didn’t see the whole film because she had to leave after an hour told me she was sorry she didn’t find it exciting. Yeah, because it is not film that will excite you. It will just introduce you to people you so very well know: Yourselves. And, your friends.

‘That Four Letter Word’ won’t change your life but it will surely make you smile, every little while, as long as you are in the mood to watch without any preset notions about how cinema ought to be.

If you are looking to find faults, don’t bother coming. It’s a waste of your money. Let me tell you as it is: There are many flaws. It’s not a great film. It might be a good film if you’re in the right mood to watch some light-hearted fare. But hey, it’s not a bad film either.

One more thing. It’s NOT a comedy in the classical sense of the word. It might evoke a few chuckles here and there. But the laugh out loud variety: Nope!

Suderman rating: Five on ten.

* * *

Starting first weekend of January, we’ll have weekly community screenings at different hangouts in the city. So all of you who have wanted to watch it free, here’s your chance. Watch out for updates. We’re planning these screenings for six weeks till the film releases mid-February.

* * *

Vinod, Sandhya, Harish, Praveen and Kiruba are five bloggers I know who were at the premiere. (I'm not sure if Chandrachoodan showed up.) They all told me they've liked the movie. I'm still waiting to read what they officially have to say.

Blog about it, people, spread the word. I don't have to say: Write the good things and the bad things. Criticism is one thing I, or any of us for that matter, take only from friends and people we respect.

Want to criticise me? Earn your chance.

Finally, a word to those waiting to rip my film apart:

"Thank you very much for your opinion but I've already got the only thing I always wanted. I made my movie, no matter what!

It's taken me seven years to be able to write this but what the hell... I still made my movie.

Now, how many of you can ever say that?"

Now you know why I'm on top of the world.

Click on the title of this post to view original post and your comments.

TFLW premieres on December 21

2006-12-14T01:08:00.000+03:00

Well, due to limited seating, I'm not able to invite everybody for the premiere of my film.

The Film Chamber auditorium (next door to Rani Seethai Hall) has a capacity of only 230 seats.

That Four Letter Word will be screened at the Film Chamber on December 21, 2006 as part of the fourth Chennai International Film Festival. The 6.15 p.m. show is only for cast and crew, friends, VIPs and media (by invitation only).

However, the 8.15 p.m. show is for delegates of the festival. So you guys better get working on getting delegate passes soon. Here's the contact information.

All you need is a photograph and 300 bucks to choose from over 100 films from 40 countries over a span of eight days and three theatres.

Pedro Almodovar's 'Volver' is the opening film (it was also the opening film at IFFI, Goa, just three weeks ago) and your 300 bucks will be worth every rupee of it for just that one film alone. I got a chance to see it at Goa. :D

And about TFLW, like I said, the Film Chamber auditorium has only 230 seats and seating is on first come first served basis.

But don't you worry, the big films are scheduled for screening at Woodlands and Woodlands Symphony.

That Four Letter Word: O-V-E-R

2006-07-29T01:14:00.000+03:00

Yes, a seven year old dream has finally come true. I've finished the movie. Finally!

:D

Thanks to Real Image for doing the 5.1 DTS mix, BlaaZe for doing the title rap (you can listen to the song by hitting the play button below the blog name in the box above), Vijay Prabakaran (and AgNO3) for spending countless hours on colour correction. And my sound engineer Sindhu for the foley effects and overall sound design. Well, I guess I'll postpone the overall thanksgiving for later.

This post was just to let you all know that my film is finally ready and now, it's just a matter of finding theatres equipped with digital projection systems.

Click on the title of the post to see original post with comments.

When Kiruba interviewed the director: Part 4

2006-04-21T03:42:00.000+03:00

There is quite a bit of money invested and there will be even more you will have to invest. How do you plan to recover your money?

Oh, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. Or at least we hope. We’ve got a decent film with us with a decent cast. Satellite rights alone these days fetch a handsome sum that would recover entire cost of production. Besides, we intend to distribute it ourselves in a small way, one step at a time. It’s our baby, we will make it crawl first before it can walk around the country and do the rounds around the world. We will make it grow from strength to strength. We have a few plans to market the film, taking it personally from one city to another city. We hope to cover ten Indian cities before it’s ready for the world.

When do you plan to release the movie?

Ideally, during Friendship Week, the first week of August. That’s exactly the mood we want people to be in when they watch the film. This movie is about a gang of friends and best watched with your gang of friends.

There’s more to our organization Made in Madras InkOperated! than TFLW. Tell us about it.

Made in Madras was what we wanted to called our film before we came up with That Four Letter Word. But then, it would have been such a cliché with Hyderabad Blues, Bombay Boys and then Made in Madras!! So we chucked the idea but the phrase is so close to our heart because we are simple people made in this simple city and we are proud of our identity. In this globalised world, I think that’s something many of us are forgetting. What was good about us! Who we really are!! Made in Madras hopes to rekindle that spirit of simplicity. It will be a society committed to bringing independent filmmakers together. In a couple of years, we will be ready to produce independent films and make the dream of first time filmmakers come true. We are also putting together a database of professionals and resources available to help you shoot your film free of cost. It will be a not-for-profit organization, run not through money but by ink! Because great ideas just require ink. Either you write them down or print them out. But put it on paper. Paperwork is all it takes to make a film! That’s the idea behind Made in Madras inkOperated! It’s also a fun company, that’s what the pun on Incorporated signifies and the exclamation is the statement we want to make through our work. A form of eccentric expression!

We notice that you use your blog to ask for volunteers for your item dance. How useful have the blogs been? Do you plan to leverage further?

My blog is one part of my life that I’ve made public. So that’s how the film sneaked in and found itself into my regular blog (http://sudhishkamath.blogspot.com). I started my film blog (http://thatfourletterword.blogspot.com) as an attempt to chronicle the making of the film because I realized that the behind the scenes were larger than life, in fact larger than the film itself. But I've not found the time to update it as often as I would've liked. I just put up a community on Orkut to keep people posted. We have an official site which we will update in the next one month.
It’s been an amazing journey of learning, togetherness and bonding as a family. It has taught us the importance of chasing a dream and the joy of doing it together as a team. Yes, the blogs have been useful in generating moral support. I had at least two volunteers for the item dance but its an idea we dropped. I have people offering me space to shoot. I’m touched. And if this interview is going to add to the help, I will only be overwhelmed! I will be putting down chapters that went into making the film, so that it can be published as a book, for purely selfish reasons. I want to give them away as souvenirs to every person who has been part of this film. A token of thanks. A memento.

What are your future plans?

I want to continue writing because I’ve become addicted to it. I want to finish my first five films before I turn 35. I’m ready with two of the five scripts. My second film Watcha Gonna Do, a multi-genre spoof on American films, will be the first production from Made in Madras inkOperated. And, hopefully it will make enough money to fund my other projects because I know that no producer with a sane mind will agree to fund my third, fourth and fifth films because they will not make money. I know there is a chance that they might not work but these are the kind of films I think are absolutely original. My third film, Checkbox Theory, (I’ve blogged about my Checkbox theory) is about a six-year old boy in love with an eight-year old girl. The film looks at contemporary love stories from the point of view of children. It tells us how clinical we get about love. The older we grow, the more checkboxes we look at ticking, in our choice of partner. The younger we are, the more blissfully we are in love, without any specific reason. To me, that is the pure love, nothing like first love. My fourth film, Slip of Mind, is a psycho-thriller set in the near future where there is no good left in the world. It’s an evil-versus-evil tale and each character has a virtue for a name. The characters are called Hate, Evil, Beauty, Lust, Hope and so on. It is a very dark, philosophical film with a lot of gore. My fifth, Bad News, will be a critique on TV journalism and the entire film unravels through news clippings. Each scene is a news capsule from a different channel. So each TV channel is a character and each tells its own version of the same set of incidents, starting from the abduction of an aging superstar in India, which ultimately snowball to September 11. It’s a fact-meets-fiction tale that requires a year of research. I personally believe I’m not old enough to make my fourth and fifth films yet. I hope to grow up in the next four-five years and develop the right kind of sensitivity and expertise to deal with such complex films. Meanwhile, we at Made in Madras will produce simple films, backed by a panel from the film industry. Just a matter of time before we get Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan, Ramgopal Varma, Farhan Akhtar and an A.R.Rahman to see what we see and get them on board as directors who will screen scripts. I personally hope to do one film a year after ensuring that Watcha Gonna Do releases in every corner of the world, no matter how long that takes. High time someone showed the finger to America’s monopoly over English films. English after all is not their language, the Brits created it. And we are/were closer to the Brits than they are/were. So, fuck you Hollywood! Here we come!
Update: I, next, starting next month, want to work on a mainstream Hindi film. I'm calling it 'Parchayi,' it's a tribute film to one of my most favourite films (I'm not saying which one but by the time it comes out, I dunno how many of you will see through it). But yes, a tribute does not mean its not original. It is entirely original because I've just taken the soul of a movie I've liked and transplanted it in a different world, with different people, with a different conflict and so, it became a very different plot with very little resemblance to the movie I'm paying tribute to. I want to make it now because it is on among the most relevant contemporary issues in Bollywood. There is a huge difference between a tribute and a remake. 'Parchayi' is an ode to orginality and fresh thinking, the need to give back something to the movies that have made us and the life around us, instead of rehashing them. To bring movies to life, you need to bring life into the movies. It's my tribute to movies and people who inspire them.

(concluded)
Want know more? That will take you back to the beginning of the series. :D

When Kiruba interviewed the director: Part 3

2006-04-21T03:34:00.000+03:00

Your movie is seven years in the making. What have been your stumbling blocks.

Money. We always knew it can create, we didn’t know it can also corrupt. We had a producer in Sashi who was willing to invest about 17 lakhs in the film. That was a lot of money for us. Until one day, Levis came and said: “Take ten from me. I want to be part of this film too.” And then, we decided to exploit the potential of in-film promos. We tried more sponsors first through our own company, then gave up and tied up with Ogilvy to get sponsors. That took us a year and a half before deals got finalized. Then we shot a promo. And tried some more to get sponsors. That didn’t work, so we had to make Sashi spend all the money. We spent about 11 lakhs making the film. We shot almost 95 per cent of it. Just another five per cent was left and life began playing games with us. One of our cast members didn’t have dates because she was now an RJ and said she couldn’t spare “even half a day” because her boss was strict. Another guy broke his knee and was advised bed rest for six months. In that period, Sashi’s daughter was diagnosed with tumour and the rest of the cast got busy with their respective careers. Cary and Usha became Southern Spice VJs. Ranvir was away, first in the middle of action, thanks to the Pooja Bhat episode, and then out of action due to an accident and then busy again in life with Lakshya. Getting common dates became a hassle. Mid of last year, one and a half years after we last shot the film, we guys got finally together and decided something had to be done. Sashi said he will give us the last instalment of five lakhs to complete the film. There was no way we couldn’t shoot parts of the film replacing two of our cast members, so we decided that it was easier to shoot the whole film again. Abbas volunteered to be Executive Producer, it was a shot in the arm for the team. In the last months, we did our best to get sponsors, but it is always difficult to get people to part with their money in the last quarter of a year. So all we have now are promises from different corporates, not a penny in hand. How long can we wait? Usha had been postponing her visit to see her sister in America for the last six months, she got a visa some five months ago. She finally had booked her ticket for mid April after we assured her we will finish by March. So two weeks ago, we took the call to go ahead and finish it, no matter what. With or without money. People have been doing it. One of my one-time assistant director Pradeep had got together with his friend Vijay last November for a cup of tea. They wrote a script by November 17, auditioned people and started shooting by November 24 and finished shoot by December 17 and editing by January 7 this year!! With no money at all, sheer will-power!!!
Pradeep and Vijay, today, are my inspiration.
I did this scriptwriting workshop at SRM mid last year and at the end of it, as a part of my motivational exercise told them to write a feature length script in 30 days and if they did, I would personally ensure that the director will provide them with the camera and the editing set-up for the shoot. Early February this year, I got a call from their director. They had a film on them. A completed one. They, today, are my inspiration.
Money corrupts a project. Will-power gives it the boost. Today we don’t have any money. But we have the will, we have people, we have the spirit. What more do we need, huh?
Having said that, thank you Mom!! For letting me steal money from your account to do the movie.

With so many difficulties, many would have given up. But you *REALLY* persevere. Why?

Ah, no way. Why would we even think of giving up on something that means the world to us. That’s like quitting life. Plus, if you’ve spent five and a half years on something, you surely don’t want that much of work to go down the drain, do you? It’s just that that kept us going. This film has changed our lives. We owe it to this film and give it some life now.

Dealing with high profile stars has its own difficulties. Why don’t you use fresh faces? After all, movies like Hyderabad Blues and Kaadhal really didn’t have big stars.

Well, like I said, the film wasn’t written for stars. The film found these stars. Every artiste wants a script he/she can relate to. I guess that worked for our film. Every person involved is in the film, not because he/she is a star but because they believe in the script and they can so relate to it. And hey, it helps to have stars because I know hundreds of filmmakers in the country who have not found distributors because we have such a dim-witted system that believes in names to sell a film. I know many completed films which haven’t found buyers because they didn’t have stars. Even Hyderabad Blues had to wait for four years after it was made before it hit the screen and Kaadhal had Boys Bharat who was a name. With the clutter of so many promos, these days we only decide to watch films if we know some face behind the film. Sudhish is hardly a face, Abbas is, Cary is, Usha today is … it’s these faces you see in the promos that actually help you make up your mind if you want to see the film or not. And no, though we fought like mad dogs on the project, we never had any major problems because we always knew that each of us wanted the film to be good.
Even if Abbas isn't a part of the film now, he will always remain a part of our family, as one of those responsible for seeing the film through.

DVD cover of the short film I made with Abbas years ago
Ellipsis was shot in two nights in the middle of a cyclone

You movie is one of the first ventures to be shot fully in digital format. What difficulties do you face with it?

There were very few difficulties as such. Though it would have been easier for us had we not shot using sync sound (location sound). Sync sound is something very few have attempted… something only what a Kamal Hasan has tried before here in the South. Farhan did it too for Dil Chahta Hai. And it’s the toughest thing when you are shooting in real locations. If you shut everyone up on the set, even the most real locations look like a set. If you don’t, it turns too noisy that you can hardly hear the lines. Then there’s the sound of the blast of the AC, other ambience noise … like traffic for example, which require you to go in for more and more retakes. This time, we’d rather go in for dubbing. Other than that, video has its limitations. There is the inherent danger of the film looking like a TV serial, because all said and done, the canvas is smaller when you shoot on video. But the advantages of shooting on video really more than make up for the difficulties. If not for video, most of us wouldn’t have ever made a movie!

Does your movie have music?

Yes, we have this American rap/hiphop/fusion band called Karmacy that has recorded a title track for us. And they are giving us another two songs. Asif Ali, our music director sat with Cary and recorded about 20 scratch songs, we’ve shortlisted quite a few of them. This time around, Asif has done another ten songs, mostly instrumental. It’s about young people. There’s got to be music.

What lessons have you learnt in filmmaking?

Oh plenty. First as a scriptwriter, I learnt how much I should NOT write. As a director, I learnt how much I should NOT take from the script. A director does not just take a script and translate it to film, he adds value and character to the film. He eliminates words and replaces them with visuals. He takes 95 per cent of the text and puts it in context and uses it as subtext. I learnt that there is no limit to how much you can add to a script. A script is basically made up of a page a minute, it probably packs ten ideas a page and is probably made up of, say, a thousand ideas which tell a story. A director needs to take each of these thousand ideas and express each of these using another ten, twenty, thirty, forty, hundred or more ideas depending on the importance and the magnitude of the idea, keeping the desired impact in mind. The lessons are many. The biggest lesson is that there are many more to be learnt. And you won’t learn till you’ve made the mistakes. I’ve made a million mistakes. I’d like to believe I’ve learnt a million lessons.

Want know more?

When Kiruba interviewed the director: Part 2

2006-04-21T03:24:00.000+03:00

We hear that you were able to rope in a very decent line up of stars. Film actor Abbas, ex-Channel [V] VJ Ranvir, SS Music VJ Cary Edwards, Usha (VJ & model), Suchitra (Radio Mirchi Rj). How did you meet the actors?

Well, first TFLW was this small film we wanted to make without any money. It wasn’t a script written after we put the cast together. One day on my job, during an interview with VJs Ranvir and Purab, I learnt Ranvir wanted to be an actor. I told him ‘Every VJ wants to be an actor.’ He didn’t take that comment lightly. After we were done with the interview, he told me that it has nothing to do with a VJ. Every body in this world either wants to make a movie/be an actor or cut an album/be a singer or write a book/be a writer. “I don’t know you but I can bet you want to be a writer,” he said. I smiled back and said: “No, I’d be the movie guy.” “Oh, so you want to make a movie,” he asked. “No, I’m making my movie,” I said. He got all curious then, so though I was least interested in telling him what it was all about, I just gave him a polite two line description of what the movie was about and he immediately asked: Can I audition? Man, I couldn’t believe that! He was a VJ, someone I had great respect for. When I studied in Manipal, he had come to our campus for a shoot. He was so funny and not even in my wildest dreams did I think that HE would want to be in MY movie? For icing, there was Purab, who joined Ranvir and said: “Me too. Can I audition too?” Purab, then got busy with ‘Supari,’ so he passed on the script to Cary, who had just about quit Channel [V] after hosting the much acclaimed Virtual [V] for three years. I still remember that we didn’t have money, so the first time I ever spoke to him was through SMS. My message to him was: “Hi Cary, no STD, only SMS. This low budget film. You still interested? Welcome to the film.”
There was Cyrus Sahukar too who was once a part of the film after he expressed interest but he backed out last minute, saying he didn’t have leave. We just had another two weeks to shoot. And I could only think of Abbas, with whom I had shot a short experimental film called ‘Ellipsis’ a few months earlier. I called him, he said: Give me two minutes, I’ll check if I have dates. Two minutes later, he calls back to say we have. “When can we meet,” he asks. “Now?” “Cool,’ he says. Thirty minutes later, at 8.30 p.m., I meet him at his wife’s boutique on North Boag Road. I narrate the script and we end up talking till 2.30 in the morning. I’ve never seen anyone more excited than him. He could so relate to the character he was playing. And then, he told me something that happened four months before that. He had invited me to the premiere of his Hindi film, ‘Ansh,’ and it turned out to be quite bad. Interval break, he asks us to come out and asks us for our honest opinion. “Bad man … it’s very bad,” I say softly. But I wasn’t telling him anything new. He knew it was bad. He almost broke down: “Why does this happen to me? I make the same mistakes in choosing films,” he said with near moist eyes. “Let’s go for a drive,” I suggested because the last thing we wanted to see was him breaking down outside his own movie preview. A friend stayed next street, so we took him there and showed him the trailer we had just shot for the film, just to warm up. At that point of time, Cyrus was still part of our film and I had my whole cast. “I really wanted to ask you if I can be part of your film that day,” Abbas recalled. “I didn’t want to take advantage of our friendship. But I think it’s destiny. God wanted me to be a part of this film.”
To this moment, Abbas has displayed the same amount of unflinching commitment, passion and enthusiasm to the film. Which is why these days I never say ‘my film,’ I always refer to it as ‘our film.’
Oh, and Ranvir almost never made it to the film because he was busy with his play ‘Blue Mug’ and he asked us to postpone shoot by a month. Cary had waited a year waiting for the film to take off by then and so we told him we can’t wait any longer. Ranvir was already upset with us for an earlier goof-up. When we shot in Pune, he drove down all by himself from Bombay and couldn’t find us because he had the wrong phone number with him and we couldn’t reach him. He was left stranded there before we reached him 36 hours later. He was so angry, he swore he wouldn’t be a part of it. By now, he had cooled down but he was still upset that we couldn’t wait for him in spite of him having done so much for the film. “I was a part of the film even before Cary joined,” he reminded us. But Ranvir had a regular job, Cary did not. So we told him we had to shoot no matter what. “Well, no bad feelings then,” he said, wishing us luck.
There was no one else who could have done that role but Ranvir. And the next alternative we could think of was Cyrus Broacha. How do we get Cyrus Broacha, we wondered aloud sitting at Qwikys when a guy walked up to us and said: “I’ve been observing you guys for the past few weeks. I’ve always wanted to help with your film. I have Broacha’s number,” he said. We christened him ‘Angel.’ Ever since that day, Angel was part of our dream. He quit his job, worked with us on the film and went back to Pune to take up a low paying job saying we inspired him to chase his dreams.
Anyway, so we called Cyrus Broacha and said: “For us, sending you the script and asking you to do our film is like asking Amitabh Bachchan if he wants to work with us.” He laughed and said: “I’m not Amitabh Bachchan. Send me the script.” We did just that and he went incommunicado while we made friends with his Mom over a coupla weeks. Initially she was hostile, then seeing that we had no intention of giving up, finally became friends and tipped us on what time we can catch him at home. Cyrus first said he liked the script and wanted to change the lines a bit. We were game. Then he asked: “When are you looking at shooting this film?” Next month, we said. “Oh, I hate to sound like Amitabh Bachchan but I have two foreign tours lined up next month. One is the UNAIDS conference in Barcelona where Bill Clinton will interview me and talk about sex” (he wasn’t exaggerating too much, it was all over the papers that he was interviewing Clinton) and there was the Nickelodeon Chotta VJ hunt in the Middle East.
So he took off, became incommunicado again. We got so desperate we tried calling five star hotels in Spain through the internet phone at Iway to reach him. No luck, people who picked up the phone didn’t even understand English.
So we scheduled his scenes for the last four days and started shoot. Ten days into the shoot, we reach him … this is two nights before we have scheduled his scenes. And he now tells us his boss Natasha didn’t want him to shoot a movie. We then call Natasha who tells us that she didn’t have a problem, in fact, she didn’t even know about the film. “Maybe he doesn’t want to do it,” she said.
So that’s how Broacha pulled a Bakra on us.
And we were all so pissed off that we cancelled shoot that evening and went for ‘Bend it like Beckham.’ In the interval, Cary asked: “Why don’t you ask Ranvir what he’s doing day after tomorrow?” “He will kill me,” I said. “That’s not too bad. But what if he agrees … we have everything to gain,” he said.
Thank you Cary, for suggesting that.
Because the phone conversation, went like this:
“Hi Ranvir, this is an SOS. We need you to bail us out.”
“Why, what happened?”
“Broacha was supposed to do your role and he backed out last minute. We know we are being really selfish but we didn’t know who else to ask.”
“What dates do you need?”
“Four days from day after tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’m free on these days. Because I just quit Channel [V] yesterday. But I’ll come only for four days. And you were going to pay me 5K a day, now make it 10K. Send me the ticket and keep the cheque ready, I’m coming.”
Ranvir, we would have paid you a lakh a day if we had the money! We jumped at his offer. Done!
So Ranvir was in again and we got our Zebra back.
That was the last time around.
This time, it was a rollercoaster because we had to change our cast halfway and resume shoot in 48 hours. And all that we did for years to get our actors, we fit into the most tense 48 hours of my life. That is something I will save for the book I'm writing on the movie.

You are a full time reporter in The Hindu. How do you manage to juggle between your full time job and the movie.

Well, the movie has been part of me for these seven years. I go to sleep with it, wake up with it, have breakfast with it, take it with me to office, make it wait while I meet different people and key in my story and then come back home with it. A movie happens in your head. It didn’t really take time away from what my work required of me, except for the 20 days when we had to do the shooting. Or let’s just say that my job isn’t really a job. It’s like life. Everyday, I meet different people, get to know them and write them in my diary using a little journalese and hey, you read it in the papers. Most of my stories are conversational, they talk to people. I didn’t find a style in it, it was what came naturally to me. And I’m glad it worked. I don’t see myself as a journalist or even a writer, nor do I even claim to be.

I dream and films are just about living out that dream … you share it with a few people, shoot it for the camera and share it with more people. It is really that simple, leave the jargon and the work out of it.

Finding the money to shoot that dream is what is 90 per cent of the “work,” the rest of it is what we love to do anyway.

Want know more?

When Kiruba interviewed the director: Part 1

2006-04-21T00:04:00.000+03:00

Thank you all for enquiring and it's time for an update.

We're nearly done dubbing for the movie, but for a little patchwork here and there. We should be done by the middle of the next month. Unless things go wrong drastically again!

Till then, here's an interview Kiruba did with me one year ago. I've edited it all over again because we went through a few cast changes after that.

The movie and my life has changed quite a bit.

Sudhish, you practically live, breathe and dream TFLW. Take us to the birth of the film.

Interesting choice of words there, Kiruba. Live, breathe and dream. Hmmm… EXACTLY the words that the film tries to explore. Yes, TFLW is about living, breathing and chasing your dream. Which is why it has to do with each one of us. Which is why it is a story of every gang of friends. Which is why it is a universally relevant theme. Which is why I found the idea interesting enough to pursue in the first place. But yes, the film was conceived when my best friend Murugan and me caught up with life, during one of his annual trips to India. While discussing our lives, we found a common thread that has to do with everybody’s life. Actually, I started a blog to record the birth of the film. So you can find the details there. (http://thatfourletterword.blogspot.com). But briefly, here’s how it started. It occurred to us that everybody in our age group had the same things to worry about: What next? What are we going to do with the rest of our lives? What determines our dreams, goals and the means to reach them? What is the price we need to pay? These are things we wanted to explore through two diametrically different attitudes in life. One way to live is to go by your heart, it has to do with living the moment, going with the flow… Carpe Diem. And the other way to live is to use your head: you plan, stick to it and know where you are going with total focus. But most of us are somewhere caught between the heart and the mind … confused about which one is right. I, for one, didn’t like Science in school, did Commerce in College, and then Masters in Science, ironically in Communications, always wanted to do advertising, but took up a job in journalism to start working on a film, just to tell someone who much I liked her. How confused can one get? TFLW is about these people … these people we know so well. Ourselves.

Did you learn filmmaking formally?

I did, we had a whole semester dedicated to it when I did my Masters, but it didn’t help much. Because, one thing about filmmaking and sex… till you have actually done it, you really don’t know how know how it REALLY feels like. Man, I sound like Siddhu, don’t I? He he! But yeah, I learnt filmmaking through the grind, on the job, while making TFLW. TFLW taught me filmmaking. I didn’t make TFLW. TFLW made me!

Who are the main people behind this venture?

Now, I don’t know where to start. Okay, first Murugan, because he wrote it with me. He was in it from Day one, or night one rather and still continues to be. That was seven years ago. And we wrote the movie over email and it took us a year and a half to develop the script. My family, my Mom and Day especially, and then, Sashi Chimala, my producer and my guide all the way. If there’s one man who has his heart in the right place, that’s him. His little daughter has been bravely fighting brain tumour for two years now and our prayers are with him. And she needs yours too, so pray for her. Though he’s not actively involved in the project now, he will always remain a part of it. Next, my cast … every single one of them. The sacrifices and the emotional investment they have made probably outweigh what me, Murugan and Sashi together have, over the years.

Abbas, who's not a part of the film anymore, but who we are indebted to forever, for being there, without being paid, supporting us for two years of his life. Unfortunately, the only way we can sort out our differences is when I finish my film and show him what I envisioned.

Cary stayed without a job for a year, waiting for TFLW, before we shot something. Similarly, Usha too, completed her second round of six months waiting for TFLW, before she shot and got another job that paid.

I have the most amazing cast, Aashil Nair, who risked losing his job at IBM to step in for Abbas in 48 hours, Paloma Rao and Praveen Bharadwaj who almost let us take them for granted unconditionally, always showing up on time, Sunil from 'Evam', for giving me the most amazing Zebra, a role I thought no body could do after Ranvir Shorey. Thank you for proving me wrong. I guarantee people will love you, whether they like the movie or not.

Archana, my production manager and angel incarnate, she was like the Atlas, carrying the weight of the production department, just by herself. Well, I could go on… my inspiration and film editor, my 'nanban' Vijay Prabakaran, who made his own film in less than two months, with no money at all, my associate director and bundle of energy Swathi Raghuraman for working round the clock, my art directors Anuradha and Preethi, for the unconditional support, all those hours of toil and believing in the film more than I have (which might tempt me to forgive them for giving The Last Samurai, my old bike, a coat or orange and blue), my music director Asif Bhai for staying on patiently giving us 30 plus tracks when we needed only half a dozen, thank you Sindhu, my really sound engineer, Preethi Narayanan, my art director from the first film, for the super professional work you churned out even before your NID experience, my soul-brother and assistant director Abhishek who has believed it is his film more than mine (lol!), my script reviewer for four years Ghirijah Jeyaraj, Ranvir who pledged his unconditional support from the moment he heard about the plot, Pradyumna Singh Chauhan who did this just to support a friend's dream despite his broken knee that took away one year of his life, Shanky Mahendra, who did the camerawork on the previous, our cinematographer Jai for stepping in at short notice … oh, there are just too many to mention. My professor Rakesh Katarey and filmmaker Hariharan, who I consider my guru.
I’ve had like ten assistant directors till date... Thank you Deesh Mariwala teaching me basics of production, Sravan and Bharani for being super resourceful, Rohit Rueben for working harder than everyone else the first time around, Krishna Ramkumar, Pradeep Kalipurayath (who came a full circle in the last five years, he started as an AD and returned to the movie as a cinematographer), Shalini Venugopal, Kumkum Jagadeesh, Avinash, Livingston, Shyam Balasubramaniam! And please remind me if I left anyone out, better late than never. And yes, I'm gonna suck at Oscar acceptance speeches... He he!

Want know more?

That Four Letter Word Version 1

2006-03-26T01:10:00.000+03:00

This is the promo of the movie which we shot three years ago, shelved and reshot.

As a build-up to the launch of the trailer of the new version and the preview coming up in a few weeks, I will be going down the memory lane and maybe use the chance to thank all the people who have been responsible for giving shape to a very old dream.

The promos will feature one new video on the movie and the making of it every week and will end with the release of the trailer of the new movie and the dates of preview. We've been stuck at the post production level for quite a long while now because of technical difficulties. But we believe this too shall pass and we will have a movie on our hands soon.

Spread the word. This August, we hope we will give you a chance to celebrate life and friendship. Sign up for the preview to be held in a few weeks by leaving a comment with your email address.

Click on the title of this post to refer back to the original post made on the personal blog to read comments.

Done

2006-01-21T01:18:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was really special. Super special.

It marked the end of a journey that's taken over six years. I would like to believe I'm done shooting for That Four Letter Word.

Yes, yesterday was the last day of shoot. Now I think I have every bit of footage I need (of course given the constraints of budget) to finish the movie.

I wanted to post a long, elaborate thanksgiving note but I guess I'll save that for later. Too tired and maybe a little too early considering that we still need to finish the final cut of the edit and wrap up dubbing by the end of the month. Looks like I'll have a movie on my hands by mid-February. And once its done, I might have to write a bible if I were to mention every single person who has contributed to get us here. I hope to do that too post premiere.

For now, I got to get back to work on the movie.

Just wanted to share my relief and happiness at having completed the entire shoot, including patch work this time.

Finally! :)

Click on the title of this post to see original post with comments.

Inching towards the final cut!

2005-10-18T22:45:00.000+03:00

People!

We faced a lot more hurdles, both personal and financial in the last few months. But, have finally been able to complete a first rough cut last month.

We also had reason to cheer after Asif Bhai, our old music director agreed to do the background score and original soundtrack for the movie, unconditionally.

Over the last coupla weeks, he has prepared some really kick-ass scores.

And we're maha-inspired as we gear up for the final cut starting tomorrow.

From here on, things would hopefully move at a reasonable pace and we hope to have a movie in our hands by the end of the year and ready for release early next year, hopefully the Valentine's season. In any case, we'll arrange a special show for bloggers before that. :)

Also, we have booked an official site. It should be up by the end of next month.

Thanks for not giving up on us and for all those endless enquiries.

This is also to welcome my co-writer and best buddy Murugan back home. He has come back for good from the US. We wrote the script over email, if you remember.

Now, that he's around, we are gonna have a full-time executive producer to run around and get us some deals. Meanwhile, if you are aware of potential buyers and distributors, do drop us an email at madeinmadras[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thanks everyone!

2005-05-02T10:18:00.000+03:00

Thanks for the wonderful words of encouragement and appreciation. The team is grateful for your support and wishes.

We hope to release it in August during Friendship Week in theatres equipped with digital projection systems. That would mean Sree in the Sathyam complex and Prasads in Hyderabad. We also have plans of an October or December release in the US.

But at the moment, we are having a little hiccups editing, because as that four letter word JINX would have it, our computer has crashed again and the editor is fighting hard to retrieve the data. If we lose it, we got to start editing all over again...

We are currently delayed by a fortnight, but we hope to catch up with the lost time soon.

Will keep you all posted. Thanks again.

Presenting VJ Cary Edwards as Vishal!

2005-04-27T16:32:00.000+03:00

Vishal: Mr. All Heart. Babe Magnet. Wears heart on the sleeve

2005-04-27T15:30:00.000+03:00

Yeah, Vishal again: There's always someone waiting to get into his pants!

2005-04-27T15:28:00.000+03:00

Vishal seems to get all the babes in the movie! Does he really?

Introducing Praveen as Prashant!

2005-04-27T15:26:00.000+03:00

That's Prashant: The man with the plan! Mr. Head on shoulder!

2005-04-27T15:25:00.000+03:00

And the man between Mr. Head and Master Heart is Sunil. The man in blue? We'll introduce him later!

Ash a.k.a. Aashil Nair from Bangalore!

2005-04-27T15:24:00.000+03:00

Okay, Sunil is played by Aashil Nair from Bangalore. A truly wonderful guy and an amazing actor!

2005-04-27T15:23:00.000+03:00

Sunil wants to make a movie!

'Evam' Sunil as Zebra!

2005-04-27T15:22:00.000+03:00

The guy in blue is the super eccentric Zebra. Sunil of 'Evam' slips into Ranvir's shoes! And how!

2005-04-27T15:21:00.000+03:00

Life has its ways of catching you unawares. It takes you by surprise! And comes calling when you least expect it!

2005-04-27T15:20:00.000+03:00

And we live in an extremely competitive world...

2005-04-27T03:19:00.000+03:00

There comes a time in our lives when we have to do a little thinking...

2005-04-27T03:18:00.000+03:00

This movie is the story of these four guys!

2005-04-27T03:17:00.000+03:00

The story about a gang of friends...

2005-04-27T03:16:00.000+03:00

It's about a bunch of people who want to stand out from the rest...

2005-04-27T03:15:00.000+03:00

A story of three (er... four) young men finding themselves!

2005-04-27T03:14:00.000+03:00

A journey of overcoming fears, pressures and confusion!

2005-04-27T03:13:00.000+03:00

TFLW is also a story about two diametrically opposite girls...

2005-04-27T03:12:00.000+03:00

Isha and Sara: Best Friends!

2005-04-27T03:11:00.000+03:00

Nothing could come between them!

Usha Seetharam as Isha!

2005-04-27T03:09:00.000+03:00

Isha's the woman of tomorrow!

2005-04-27T03:08:00.000+03:00

The girl who does not recognise boundaries!

Paloma is Sara!

2005-04-27T03:07:00.000+03:00

And Sara, is actually the Saraswati at heart! The girl of today who walks two worlds. And almost leads a double life!

2005-04-27T03:06:00.000+03:00

After all not everyone can be Isha!

2005-04-27T03:04:00.000+03:00

But hey, they love each other! But not the way you think they do! ;)

2005-04-27T03:03:00.000+03:00

When boys meet girls, a lot of things can happen...

2005-04-27T03:02:00.000+03:00

Soon, it's a whole new game!

2005-04-27T03:01:00.000+03:00

The game called Life. That Four Letter Word.

2005-04-27T03:00:00.000+03:00

A game where anything is possible!

The TFLW Shoot: A collection of short stories - 1

2005-04-09T01:50:00.000+03:00

We wrapped up the first schedule of the movie today.

We finished 85 per cent of the shoot in 11 days of shoot!

That's like a record of sorts cuz I didn't think we would be able to shoot at that pace and stick to the schedule. But we did.

Only cuz we didn't have a choice but to wrap up shoot by 8th.

Usha leaves to America on the 18th of this month. And we need to give our editor at least five days to edit her scenes so that she can dub on the 13th and 14th before she leaves for Bangalore on 15th. The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster.

It all started with a rather well-thoughtout decision and a very hard one at that. Getting back my place at the top.

"You fired a star. You've arrived as a director finally," said a friend.

Please... more than firing, for me, it was about losing someone who put in a lot of effort and time in the film. I still feel bad that it happened and ended that way but like they say, it all happens for the good.

So after that fateful night on March 23, we had a huge task on hand. Replacing a star meant losing another who he had brought in and the cinematographer too. And the food sponsorships.

We called a meeting next morning to check who's in and who's out. The other star and the cinematographer turned up for the meeting to tell me they had to opt out cuz "I can't give up on 14 years of friendship for a movie" and "I'm doing this cuz he's the Executive Producer and would like to be paid at the end of the project. Now that he's not there, there is no guarantee that this movie will be made."

This meant that we had to get three out of the four guys who play lead roles in the film because Ranvir said that he had absolutely no dates till May.

Vijay, my friend who made the no-budget film called 'I just don't get it,' said that I could try Aashil from Bangalore for the lead character Sunil. Aashil, had done a small role in the movie 'Brides Wanted' and was an excellent actor who would fit the part, said Vijay. So we asked him to send his pics.

Aashil also sent me a Sprite ad he had done. The minute I saw the ad, I knew I had Sunil. He had energy, he looked like the boy next door and he was the same age as the character he had to play!

Problem: He was now working with IBM and his boss was outta town till April 6. He had already given up a job with STAR for doing 'Brides Wanted.' He didn't want to lose another job now. We sent him the script.

Then we made Vijay tell him nice things about the movie. We bullied him into travelling by bus though he was willing to pay the rest of the fare and fly down.

We put him up with a mentally ill girl with a literally psycho (it was given behaviour correction therapy) dog called Frodo. We made him wear all his clothes and didn't give him a chance to wash them at all, so he ended up carrying and wear dirty clothes, all for the sake of costume continuity. We make him travel by bike, pillion on an Activa with the Assistant director Swathi.

Talking of Swathi, my AD, I couldn't have asked for a more super efficient soul. A bundle of energy, despite the price she's had to pay for agreeing to do the film. At last count, the amount of damage the movie has caused her, can be valued at Rs. 51,500 plus fuel.

She had an accident one morning when she was picking up people for the early morning shoot and ran over a median. She lost (I hope not) the mike she borrowed for us.

She also ran production errands half the time and was part-time production manager too since Arch, our production manager, had a more complex production to run at the same time: her in-laws and household chores. Yes, Archana would wake up by five, make breakfast and lunch and land up at the set by seven or eight, all the way from Ambattur and then go back early evening to make dinner since her folks didn't know she was shooting for a movie. She would also cajole her hubby Vivek into doubling up as driver to chauffer the whole unit around, apart from chipping in as stuntman for the climax scene.

Oh, back to: March 24, the day after we part ways with our star actor who was also Executive Producer.

So we saw Aashil's ad on 24th evening and convinced him on 25th evening to leave Bangalore the same night by bus. We auditioned this London trained actor called Tejas Sreedhar to play the part of Prashant. He seemed perfect and he agreed to do the role.

So we had the third Prashant for the film after my buddy Pradyumna who did the role three years ago and Kunal, the star's friend.

We auditioned half a dozen people for Zebra (Ranvir had played Zebra) and finally zeroed in on 'Evam' Sunil for the role.

March 25

We had a cast. A friend put us on to Manoj, the assistant cameraman to Saravanan, the guy who had worked on masala action movies 'Madurae' and 'Tirupaachi.' I was so excited at the prospect and yes, Manoj did have this natural flair for creating energy and pace!

Then I meet 'Evam' Sunil who gets all his doubts clarified about Zebra. I get a call from home.

My mom just wanted me to get some money from the ATM and rush home cuz she and Dad were leaving town same evening. Grand-dad was critical in Kochi.

March 26

I haven't slept and it's 1 a.m. on what is supposed to be the first day of my shoot, my third attempt in making the film after the second one ended two days ago. I set the alarm to go to bed, had to pick up Aashil at 5 a.m.

I get a call at 3 a.m. It was news from Kochi, my Grand-dad was no more. I pick up Aashil from the Koyambedu bus-stand, bring him home by 5.30 and then call all my relatives in the city to inform them about the death of grand-dad and then leave for shoot, after dropping off Aashil at a friend's place.

We shoot Scene 55 for the third time with our third Prashant. The scene involves Vishal (Cary) race against another car as Prashant (now played by London-trained dumbfuck actor Tejas Sreedhar) tries to drill some seriousness into the carefree Vishal.

We bring back Swathi's friends Rishab and Abhinav to play the menacing rivals in the race for the second time in a week, for the same scene we had shot earlier with actor K as Prashant.

We also shoot a scene where Prashant is supposed to teach Sara (Paloma) to drive. And Paloma really didn't know to drive. Talk about reality filmmaking. Ha ha! A

nyway, with great fear, we let Paloma take the driver's seat as Tejas sat in the front seat to guide her through her driving. Manoj and me are in the backseat filming the scene. And the way Paloma drove, it was quite an adventure in itself.

March 27

We decide to do the garage scenes at Archana's factory garage. The art directors Anu and Preethi did a super job in four hours flat to convert the garage into Sunil's movie production office within the film.

Aashil (who plays Sunil) gives his first shot of typing a script as we wait nervously for T to land up. T had been inaccessible all morning. We had the garage only for a day and there was no way we can erect the same set again cuz the garage was to be occupied soon. Also, we still had not got a bike for Aashil in the film. With no option left, I hand over my Last Samurai to the art directors and ask them to give it a little character. I can't speak about what they did to my bike.

I will post a picture tomorrow when I'm in a better mood. Well, right now it looks dirty orange with paint scraped off, it looks like a contraption someone stole from a mechanic shop. And I've taken a vow not to paint it back till I finish the film.

We got another bike for Aashil, Abhinav's BULLET! T did not turn up, nor does he pick up 500 of our missed calls. So we shoot the scene without him.

March 28

Cinematographer Manoj had to leave cuz his boss called him. So he put us on to Jai, who had an entirely different style. If Manoj was the Vijay masala action movie cinematographer, Jai was more like PC Sreeram working for Kathir.

But when we shot outside Stella Maris College, it was more like Bowfinger style. We make our actors walk up to the gate and do their acting and shoot from a camera hidden in a car on the opposite side of the road. Meanwhile Tejas is still inaccessible. So we also make a pretty common friend call him and Tejas returns her call promptly.

She gives me the phone and he has a story ready. That his Dad was in the ICU and he doesn't have dates anymore. We hope his Dad really was in the ICU or he's gonna take a truckload of curses straight to hell. Losing Tejas at this stage meant looking for one more Prashant and reshooting one whole day's shoot all over again. For the fourth time.

We had permission to shoot at Sathyam theatre that night and it was the climax scene. We cannot do without a Prashant. So we need to find a Prashant in a few hours. We audition half a dozen theatre actors. All of them are too dramatic. It's about half past ten in the night and the shoot at Sathyam is scheduled for 1 a.m. and we don't have a Prashant.

10.30. p.m.

We finally touch base with Praveen, who played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, after tryin in vain to reach him throughout the day. We ask him to come to Besant Nagar Cozee for an audition. We reach there at 10.45 and there's a Tsunami warning, they ask us to clear the coast. We go to Swathi's house with Praveen and make him do a reading. At the end of the first attempt, I shake hands with Cary. He had suggested Praveen after all. We had a Prashant. We found him two hours before our shoot! I hate to think what we would have done if Praveen was as dramatic as the others who auditioned!

March 29

Early morning. 1.00 a.m. Chandrachoodan, who volunteered to help reading blogs, lands up with his colleagues. We have about 30 extras for the climax scene. Enough to fill the frame and cheat it to make you believe its a full house on camera. Finally, good news. We have a cast. And we also have extras!!

It's a long night as we try and get a sleep deprived Aashil to remember his lines.

March 30

Aashil really gets under the skin of the character. He's a blast as we shoot a scene outside Coffee? and then one on Broken bridge, where he has a conversation with God. It's a blast of a scene. This scene will surely work. Watch out for this. We had him standing on the edge of the bridge and he almost fell off. Twice. Shooting hasn't been more fun.

March 31

We get permission to shoot in Spencer Plaza. We shoot with Aashil and scores of unsuspecting visitors in the mall. We make some of them say 'Hi Sunil' on camera to establish that Sunil (Aashil) is a popular guy always found with his handycam. Thanks to Landmark for letting us get some really colourful footage.

April 1

We came back to Sathyam theatre to shoot the rest of the climax early in the morning. This is when Swathi had an accident and ran over the median. Now, we were one car less and after this, we had to use autorickshaws, call taxis and bikes for moving around! VinodJi landed up for shooting another scene at Sathyam theatre and hey, you guys must read about his tryst with stardom.

For the evening, we needed 30 cars for the traffic jam.

Being April 1, a lot of people thought we were joking. So we had only seven cars for the finale. And we had to manage with that! Damn! Add that to the pangs of being a low budget film!

We took permission from the Deputy Commissioner and still had to bribe the beat cops in Anna Nagar to shoot at Anna Nagar Roundtana. This was the most stressful day of shoot and almost all of us lost our cool.

Imagine, the Commissioner was on rounds and he along with his convoy stopped right behind us wondering what the hell was happening, just as I had called Cary to say Action (He was 200 metres away at the signal before the Roundtana one).

What that meant was that Cary would now come driving at 100 km per hour and come crashing into the Commissioner's convoy if I missed calling him right back to say Cut! I couldn't reach him but thankfully, he called back to check if it was really 'Action'.

God saved us that night for sure. We shot two angles of the scene after that and got outta there. We went to my street and shot the rest of the close-ups, recreating the scene right outside my house.

Okay, it's already been too long a blog. So let me call it a night and continue the rest of it tomorrow! Intermission! :)

Advance Booking

2005-03-25T01:21:00.000+03:00

150 Free tickets available for One O clock show at Sathyam theatre on 29th!

Hang on... 28th night that is. After the 10 O clock night show on Monday night, at 1 a.m., I need a 150 people to fill up Studio 5.

This is just to book you all in advance for the show. What are they showing? Er... nothing, but I can get them to play a movie for you guys.

I'm gonna be shooting, so I want you guys to fill up the frame and give it some EXTRA punch! And yeah, you can watch the shoot too! Aint that exciting?

Well, I know I make a bad Tom Sawyer!

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But yeah, I will be very grateful if you can land up! This is one favour I need badly!

Thanks a ton!

Directors-cut

2005-03-24T01:23:00.000+03:00

I did something yesterday.

I made an important decision. It was a tough one. Cuz it involved losing someone who had put in a lot of effort into my film. But I was left with no option but to do it. Told my lead star not to do my film if he didn't trust me enough to do my job as a director.

I do realise he has a decade's experience in the Tamil film industry, respect the name he has created for himself and the effort he has put in my film. But what I could not deal with, was (and IS) interference.

I strongly believe that a movie is a director's baby.

And it is that director who has to take the credit or the blame for a good movie or the bad movie he creates. So that people at least know whose baby it is. A movie becomes a bastard when too many people try to play director.

I have always said it is "our movie." I still think it is "our movie" but there can only be one director.

I know I'm the "beginner director" and he's the star.

But I refuse to believe that he's "doing me a favour."

So I told him not to do my film if he thinks he's doing me a favour. And with him went half my crew (who he brought in) and the other lead actor. So that's how it all ended. I lost my cinematographer, my music director, half the locations and food he had arranged for the shoot. I lost three days of what I shot.

The show, however, has just started.

I am going to re-start my film for the third time.

I auditioned people today, recast my actors and am all set to start shoot again.

Starting day after tomorrow!

Like I said in last post, nothing can stop this film from being made. No matter what, I will complete shoot for this movie before April 10. I gave my word to a lesser star in the film. And I will keep my word. The show ... will go on!

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The bitter-sweet pangs of low budget filmmaking

2005-03-19T01:26:00.000+03:00

Ranvir almost dropped out of the film today.

Rahul Bose rejected a special appearance.

We don't have permissions to shoot our climax scene.

And we don't have money.

Oh, but first the good news: I'm right at the beginning of my second attempt at making That Four Letter Word, and it was a great evening's work of shoot at The British Council.

It's nice and colourful and I'm happy. More than satisfied, in fact. I got the shoot started again, after over two years and eight months!

The first day's shoot cost me all of Rs.585 bucks: 450 for buying three tapes, another 50 for thermocol, 65 for juice for my technical crew and another 20 for black tape used to mark the margins of the LCD, so that we know what the frame looks like for cinemascope!

Yes, like I said we still don't have the money to cover even the incidental expenses, so I'm spending out of my pocket. Abbas today asked me what should we do if do not get the money to cover incidental expenses, which could shoot upto 1.5 lakhs!

No sponsor, no producer (well, as good as no producer considering that this is the last thing on his mind right now), nothing, no one! Yet, there's some sort of energy that's keeping us going. We've made half a dozen presentations, trying to incorporate everything from fruit bars to vodka into the script. And honestly, now I'm tired of chasing sponsors or bugging disinterested producers. I just want to make my film.

So I told Abbas: If we don't get anyone to give us money, then we don't owe anything to anyone. We don't need to give a fuck about answering questions from anyone! We own the film. So we create it and we sell it once it's done and make some money! And then, repay every single person who has been instrumental in the making of this film -- the first time as well as the second!

The good thing about low budget filmmaking is that there's not too much to lose here.

The very process of creating something we believe in, gives satisfaction that words can only try to describe. There's a whole lot of feel good, the high of being in an underdog team that almost won the World cup, the spirit and camaraderie of working together to see a common dream come true.

As obstacles, one after another, show us their ugly face, the more resolved we get to deal with things which we have become too familiar with -- rejections from sponsors, actors we badly want in our film and other production hassles we can write a thesis on. So now there's like the known sense of comfort in dealing with them. Obstacles have become like these unreliable people we know. "Okay, it's him... we know how to deal with him." Let's go on without letting him win over. All right, we don't have this, we don't have that ... but let's make sure that we don't have to say again that we don't have a film!

However much it sounds like a cliche, the show must go on. With or without money. And, nothing ... NOTHING... can stop us now!

If we lose one, the others do it! That's how a team works. And that's how a battle is fought!

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Shoot starts today!

2005-03-16T10:33:00.000+03:00

People,
I'm extremely pleased to inform you all that the shooting for That Four Letter Word re-starts this evening at the British Council.
If you can make it at this short notice, please make it to British Council for the Buzz party, to mark the start of the movie. Time 7.30 p.m. Date: March 16 (today).
Spread the word.
And wish us luck.
Cheers!

Resetting the biological clock!

2005-03-08T22:42:00.000+03:00

I'm used to staying online till 4 or 5 a.m. and wake up by noon.

But with shoot only a few days away, I decided to try and reset my clock.

I woke up today at 8.30 a.m, in spite of going to bed only by three last night.

The whole day I've been feeling so damn drowsy. But the good news is that I got quite a bit of work done. Fixed up at least four locations which cover about 40 per cent of the movie. Another 10-15 per cent needs to be fixed up. The rest? We are not taking permission.

It's a technique we picked up from Bowfinger! :)

Today, we caught up with a friend from the film industry, to show him our first version of That Four Letter Word. What we shot three years ago. Though it was embarassing enought to make me cringe in my seat, I think it was good to feel that way because it just meant that I know what was wrong with it. Hopefully, it should be better the second time around.

With increasing workload, I have sworn to go to bed by midnight. But for the fact that I got home and finished dinner only by then. Had a couple of emails to send and a quick daily update on the film to type and it's already 1.20 a.m.

But that's because my favourite people from around the world get online at this hour!!

Sigh! I want everything!!

But first, let me finish and crash. That's the only way I won't crash into another vehicle tomorrow, riding around like a zombie, like I nearly did today!

Good night!

Two weeks notice!

2005-03-07T22:58:00.000+03:00

Just another two weeks before we shoot.

Maybe even earlier, depending on how the permissions for locations needed turn out.

And we have enough reason to panic, but we won't. At least not yet. But here's why it's crazy.

1. Ranvir hasn't confirmed dates yet. He reaches Mumbai only on March 20 and will take three days to read the new script. He said he will call us on 25th. Which will be three or four days into the shoot.

2. We still haven't been able to get a replacement for Suchitra though we've auditioned a few. We've sent the word out. If you guys know any girl interested in playing one of the lead roles in the film, please email sudhish.kamath@gmail.com.

3. Though we have had smaller meetings with almost everybody involved in the film, we haven't had an entire cast-crew meeting yet because the final list of the cast and crew is yet to be prepared.

4. Scheduling the shoot requires permissions for the locations needed but we can't get permissions till we get a fix on the cast. Hope this will resolve in the next few days.

5. I've applied for leave between March 15 and April 30. I still haven't heard from the management about that!

On the upside however:

1. We are ready with the location report and grouped Ranvir's scenes together to be shot towards the end.

2. We have adequate people for the crew. Just a matter of time before we are all able to meet together and have daily sittings. That should start happening in a week.

3. We have some wonderful people who have volunteered to help in kind by giving us locations and props that we need.

4. Last time we didn't have Ranvir even after 15 days into our shoot. He's destined to be part of this project. We know he will make it. And we have a backup ready. Half the scenes we shot with him last time can be used as they are.

5. Last time around, my letter never reached the management till I came back from the shoot and I got into trouble. This time, at least that has been taken care of!

:)

Kiruba's interview!

2005-03-07T22:44:00.000+03:00

Kiruba's interview has most of the information that I wanted to put on this blog on the Making of the movie: The journey of the film from then to now.

So, you guys can catch up with the action here.

Thank you Kiruba.

Starting tomorrow. I will be blogging here about the daily developments and work in progress on the film, along with information on help that we need.

But before that, I would like to summarise the help I seek.

1. Money. If you do know of potential sponsors looking at attracting a young audience, please help yourself to this.

2. Production Assistants. People willing to spare a month and work full time between mid March to mid April, and for free.

3. Extras. People who can chip in with guest appearances at your convenience and as much as possible in the free time you have.

4. Traffic jammers. Required for two days of shoot with cars and bikes to stage a traffic jam in the middle of the night. Might require you to stay awake all night. Please bring your friends along.

5. Pretty women. Who will act as one of Cary's many girlfriends in the film. Scene involves dirty dancing with Cary! Women willing to kiss will be an added plus! :)

Please register with us by emailing me at madeinmadras@gmail.com or sudhish.kamath@gmail.com at the earliest. Our production manager will then call you to confirm details.

Can't thank you guys enough for the support. So I will save that up for later.

Cheers!

Need volunteers for Item dance!

2005-02-28T21:37:00.000+03:00

I know this is a little bizarre for a request.

But I want some of you to volunteer as dancers for an item number I'm gonna be shooting. It's like a spoof of an item number.

The lead female dancer is wearing a dress just made out of hankies. And the song is called "Hanky panky."

All guys dancing in the background will be wearing clothing made up of one or more hankies. So we need people to be total sports. Cuz it is gonna look incredibly funny. And your relatives might disown you after watching you with your pants down.

All you will be left with are hankies to wipe your tears. Storyline for item: Hawt babe dances with all you guys and kisses one guy who turns into a frog! (Story Credit: My own genious genie Fid Jaan, from Leeds)

Also need choreographer for the song.

Standard TFLW rules apply. Nobody gets paid/laid in exchange for this favour. Yes, you read that right, it means that you don't get to sleep with the director!

Post Script: Whoever thinks I'm joking, does not know me yet!

Here comes That Four Letter Word

2005-02-24T01:28:00.000+03:00

People,

Finally, we decided to go ahead and make our movie no matter what.

We don't have any money whatsoever. But we gonna do it. All by borrowing and taking favours.

We need locations to shoot, so if any of you reading this have some awesome place you could let us shoot in Madras, please let me know. We need houses, rooms, eat outs, streets, beach stretches, shops, stalls, malls ... any where you can expect to find young people.

By shoot, we are just talking about a bunch of ten people hanging around the location with a small tiny camera and a tripod. Not with the extravagant film shooting paraphernalia. Ours is just a digital production.

We need volunteers to work as production assistants. But on a full time basis for 22 days. between mid March to early April. For free. We won't even be giving you food.

We need extras to add to the ambience of the film every single day...

And for the climax scene, we need 20 -30 people with cars and bikes to hold up traffic on top of a flyover. We are gonna be shooting it early morning at the break of dawn and pass it off as night. Please let me know if you can join the chaos.

The action is about to begin. All we are waiting for is YOU!

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What Next?

2004-09-27T18:04:00.000+03:00

What do we do about the rest of our lives?
That's the question which pops up every now and then in the minds of almost every young thing on two legs.

What do we really want from life?
What determines what we want?
What makes us different from the rest?
What is the price we are willing to pay to get what we want?

These are the issues we try to figure out through the story of Sunil (Abbas), Vishal (Cary Edwards), Prashant (Kunal) and Zebra (Ranvir Shorey) in this coming of age feel good comedy, That Four Letter Word.

Me and Murugan, buddy from school, wrote the script about five years ago. A lot might have changed between then and now but we found that these core issues are still relevant. Which is what makes us believe that we do have something to say. Something that will reflect contemporary urban lifestyle, youth and their aspirations.

A story which traces the lives of four distinctly different guys of the same gang with dreams ranging from the real to the ideal to the surreal and the bizzare. In this global world where everything seems so standardised, human still continue to defy definitions for one simple reason: We are all diffferent people.

That Four Letter Word tries to exploit those differences to explore the psyche of contemporary global youth, irrespective of whether they are from New York or New Delhi. It is also an attempt to study issues which connect people and tries to uncover what is so common in our seemingly different lives.

Is being young just about falling in love as we often see in the movies? Or is every young thing a son of a rich industrialist, businessman or household, like we saw in the much-acclaimed Dil Chahta Hai starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna. Contemporary youth have more aspirations than just love. This movie tries to capture those dreams and emotions which define who we are and what we become.

This blog is for recording the 'making of this movie'.

A 'making' that has turned out to be larger than life, quite ironically for a slice of life film.

It's a 'making' that has now completed five years from when it was conceived, two years after it was last shot. It's a 'making' which has changed the lives of every single person in the cast and crew, including mine.

It's a 'making', which, in spite of having seen broken hearts, bruised egos, shattered dreams, injured knees and irreparable damage has seen an invincible spirit, the most unshakeable faith, unflinching conviction, unbreakable bonds and unconditional commitment. Ahem Ahem! He he! But seriously, we are talking about stuff that inspires people. I love my team. And I think I owe it to them to try and record every possible detail that I can dig out of my memory.

And all those who have been a part of this movie, do post or mail me things we can add to this 'Making of the movie,' which at some point in time could be developed into a book. I'm sure that all the learning we did in the process of making this movie will enrich many out there who want to make their first movie.

I also hope that with time, we are able to expand our family from just the cast and crew to include our audience.

Here we go now.

Cheers!

Sudhish Kamath
Director of That Four Letter Word