The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Army officer's movie making experience

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 31, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Army officer's movie making experience

S.R. Ashok Kumar

ARAN: Mohanlal and Jeeva in the film.

CHENNAI: While working in the defence forces, Major Ravi had an opportunity to get himself involved with film industry in the form of planning film sequences in border areas. He interacted with directors such as Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan. But when he himself lay his hands on a good script (a real life incident), Ravi was ready to do it. His venture is "Aran."

Talking about his movie making experience, Major Ravi says: When I was in Kashmir, the local papers flashed the news saying an officer who had wiped out many terrorists was here to make a movie. My colleagues in the Army asked us to leave the place as soon as possible. But I made the family of militants to act in the film as onlookers and they co-operated very well. We used dummy bombs even while blasts were going on around us in places like Kupwara, or Doda. "Aran" was the only film, which was shot continuously for 30 days in Kashmir.

Major Ravi has worked as associate director in "Pukar" with Santhosh Sivan. He had worked with directors Rajkumar Santhoshi and Mani Ratnam for some time.

Cameraman S. Thiru has captured Kashmir's scenic beauty in his camera, while Joshua Rajan has scored the music.

The lead man Mohanlal plays Major Mahadevan and Jeeva plays a trusted Havildar Jaikumar. Gopika as wife Sandya of Jaikumar has also done a good job.

"I am used to the sounds of bomb explosions. Mohanlal and Jeeva also did not get perturbed by the sounds. And the unit members also gave their full cooperation. I think that is the highlight of my movie making experience," the armyman-turned-director adds.

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