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SCRIPTING change
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Digital technology will change filmmaking, says director Hariharan
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Pic. K. Ananthan
HIS FASCINATION: Film cameras. Little wonder, he loved them and learnt to handle them with finesse soon after entering the portals of the famous Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, in 1973.
"Seeing frames in the 35 mm camera was considered a great privilege. We used to prepare a lot before taking shots," recalls noted filmmaker Krishnan Hariharan.
Though Hariharan is still nostalgic about the film camera, it no longer fascinates him; the digital camera does. He admits that he is bored of seeing frames over and over again. "Filmmaking is no longer a mystery. Thanks to digital technology it has become a lot easier now," says this National award-winning director.
More democratic
Hariharan who was in town recently to inaugurate the theatre club at Dr. GRD College of Science spoke about how digital cameras are changing the way films are being made. "There is more space for everyone due to digital cameras. It's a mistake to consider films that are only released in theatres as cinema. If you do that, movies like Kaya Taran will have no space," he points out.
"The cinema of the 21st century will be the most democratic. It would truly be of, by and for the people. And filmmakers will have a huge responsibility because of that."
Hariharan's Ezhavathu Manithan (1982 - Raghuvaran made his debut in the movie) ran for more than 100 days, won a National award for the best Tamil film and was, incidentally, the first film to win an International award- the Afro-Asian solidarity award.
So, what is his recipe for success? "All through my career, I was conscious about one thing. I should have a perfect script and have everything ready before shooting begins. Of course, you can improve the script on the location. Even if I were to fall sick, the rest of the crew should be able to continue with the shooting. It helped me a lot in the long run," he says.
"If you want to have complete artistic control of your film, you should be willing to work with people who are not stars. The moment you cast a star in your film, you have to work according to their image," he points out.
Low budget films
"My first film Ghasiram Kotwal (a Marathi film) was made with a budget of Rs. 1.5 lakhs. You can make a film for any cost. Everything depends on how you plan," he remarks. But after his first experience in mainstream cinema (Dhool Parakathu) Hariharan decided to focus on low-budget films with short schedules. "Making films over a long span is just not profitable," he says.
Hariharan, who also teaches cinema, says that film appreciation should be a part of public discourse. "Only then can people differentiate between good and bad films," he observes.
Hariharan's last film Dubashi, produced by the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI), was made with a 95-page, a-page-a-minute-script and was shot in just 19 days! He is now working on a project to compile a database of Indian movies. "The database has the names, directors and year of release of more than 30,000 films in Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Manipuri, Assamese and other Indian languages. Once we complete it, we plan to upload it on a website."
M. ALLIRAJAN
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