It is the technicalities of movie making that enticed him rather than the glitz, glamour and greasepaint. And, Bavan Sreekumar did make into the humongous world of movies and today the youth who hails from Thiruvananthapuram is doing a great business in industry, his latest being Sidharth Bharathan’s Chandrettan Evideya.
Chandrettan Evideya was like a homecoming experience for me as it is the second directorial venture of Sidharth Bharathan. It was through Sidhu’s debut venture Nidra that I entered the industry as an independent editor. So working again with the same director and team was like being with my family. Writers Santhosh and Sameer were also part of both projects,” says Bavan.
He says it is his friendship with Sidharth that opened doors for him into the industry as an independent film editor. “We were friends from my Chennai days, while assisting Sreekar sir. It was through some of our mutual friends who were assisting Santhosh Sivan that I met Sidhu for the first time. Later, we became good friends. It was for his debut venture Mithram in 2009 that I associated with him as a film editor. But, due to certain circumstances that project failed to materialise. It was in 2011 that Nidra happened,” he says.
Bavan says he got full freedom from Sidharth during the editing of both movies. “He never interfered unnecessarily into the work. In the case of Nidra, while editing a scene which portrays the mental state of the protagonist, I did try something unconventional through the use some black cards to inter-cut the point of view of a third person and his mind. I could do it only because of the director’s support,” says the editor.
It was after Nidra that he got a call from ace director Hariharan for his movie Ezhamathe Varavu based on the script by M T Vasudevan Nair. “Earlier I had worked with Hariharan sir in Pazhassi Raja as associate editor. It was through that contact that he called me for ‘Ezhamathe Varavu’. Working with such a senior and legendary filmmaker was a great experience. He used to sit with us even during the rush-cut. He is a very dedicated film maker,” he says.
Bavan also worked for Savaari 2 (Kannada) by Jacob Varghese, Malini 22 Palayamkottai (Tamil), Malini 22 [Telugu] directed by Sripriya, Aaha Kalyanam by Gokul Krishna, Om Obama by Janaki Vishwanathan and Theerodum Veediyile directed by Saroj Sriram.
“Aha Kalyanam was the debut venture of Yash Raj films in South India. Gokul, the director of the movie, and I were friends from the time he was working as associate director of director Vishnu Vardhan,” says Bavan who is currently for a Tamil movie named Mellisai by debut director Ranjit.