The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : For the love of the movies

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Sunday, Jun 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

For the love of the movies

— Photo: V. Ganesan

S. Sam.

From holding up power cables at a film shooting location to sitting down for discussions late at night to searching for that perfect green apple for an ad shoot, this young associate director has learnt his lessons the hard way.

While he divides his time between films and short films, he also dabbles in theatre. S. Sam who has worked in the runaway hit ‘Paruthiveeran’, has made and won awards for short films on subjects like pre-marital sex and the urge of a young boy to make a phone call. He spoke about his desire to create five films of different genres to Deepa H. Ramakrishnan.

“I love to dance. When in school, whenever I heard any music, I would just start dancing. For about seven years, I was with a theatre group and I still continue to work in plays,” says S. Sam, who discontinued a Masters degree in public administration to join the Film Institute in Taramani.

“Theatre helps me a lot in films. I have always wanted to say something to the public, some kind of message and the film medium is the best I can think of,” he explains.

His first short film, ‘Aasai’, was shot when he was a student of the institute. It was nominated for State and national awards and screened at the Satyajit Ray Film Institute, Kolkata. “It is about a boy from Tirunelveli working in Chennai, who wanted to talk to his mother over the phone. He saved enough money to make a call and made the call also. But I preferred an open end film and didn’t show if the boy spoke or not.”

Even as a student of the film institute, he worked as an assistant to director Kathir.

Mr. Sam has made two educational films for TANSACS and a few radio commercials. “Ameer sir showed how a film can be a commercial hit and still be realistic.”

“After ‘Paruthiveeran’, I wanted a change and so I made a short film. It is called ‘Naanum’, on pre marital sex.”

The short film won the Best fiction movie award at the Ahwaan film festival at New Delhi and the best screenplay writer at Youth Film Makers Digital Short Film festival in Chennai.

He is now working as an associate director with Janaki Vishwanathan. “I liked her film ‘Kutti’ very much. And I am also working on the script for my own film. My long-term aim is to make exactly five films and not any more. They must all be in different genres and also one Hollywood film.”

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