Cinematographer-turned-director, KV Anand talks to Shankaran Malini about the making of ‘Ko’, which he terms a commercial action-thriller with a realistic touch.
KV Anand is busy with the post-production of ‘Ko’, which is all set to release in April. “Re-recording, final sound-mixing and final touches in the post-production are on,” says the cinematographer- turned-director.
But, guess what has energized him so much? “A recent tweet by Harris Jayaraj said, ‘Saw the double positive of the film ‘Ko’ for background score. KV Anand and Suba have done a brilliant job. Kudos to you guys.’ It was indeed encouraging,” he reveals to us.
This is the second film of KV Anand’s that Harris Jayaraj has scored music for and the music is already a raging hit — think ‘Ennamo yedho’. Harris Jayaraj will team up with KV Anand for his next venture, ‘Maatraan’, as well along with Suriya in the lead.
KV cranked the camera for Suriya’s very first film ‘Nerukku Ner’ and when he directed ‘Ayan’ with Suriya as the lead, almost 12 years had passed by. But he elaborates on why he likes working with Suriya, “I’ve seen him as a novice. By the time I directed him in ‘Ayan’, he had already worked with big directors like Bala, Ameer, Gautam Menon. What a magical transition he had undergone!”
Back to Harris, he talks of how he makes those magical melodies. “He is not the kind who works on strict deadlines — like so many songs in so many days. He can work only when his mind is totally free and if he is all set, he comes up with his best,” he says and shares an example.
“For the ‘Venpaniyae’ song in ‘Ko’, we went to Harbin, which is in the north-eastern part of China, bordered by Mongolia. Because Harris was insistent on the ambience, the tune was composed there,” he says.
Throwing light on innovative titles for his films he says, “‘Ko’ is a Tamil word meaning ‘King’, you find it in use in some names even today like Ilango and Kaviko. It attracts one’s attention when the title sounds different and it has already worked for ‘Ayan’, now ‘Ko’ and next for ‘Maatran’ as well.”
From a still photographer, to a photojournalist, a cinematographer and now director, KV Anand has done it all and his first love still happens to be photography, which is why there is an autobiographical element in ‘Ko’, too.
“In filmmaking, a director cannot take the full credit because it’s a team work. But as a photojournalist, a credit can completely be mine. ‘Ko’ is about a successful magazine and its editorial set up where the editor gives freedom to his journalists to express themselves. When I decided to cast Jiiva in this role, I was absolutely convinced that only he fit the role. He does not have any airs about him and he is casual and very down-to-earth,” he gushes.
He has taken about 150 cover photographs for reputed magazines and close-up profile shots of 10 chief ministers such as M Karunanidhi, J Jayalalithaa,Janaki Ramachandran, Devilal and so on after getting personal appointments. Is he willing to return to photography?
“After ‘Maatraan’, for sure,” comes the reply. Another interesting element to watch out for in ‘Ko’ is its action sequence shot using the Phantom Flex camera. “The demo model I used here was first used for ‘Spiderman’, in the HD format at 2,500 frames per second as opposed to the normal speed of 24 to 150 frames per second in an ordinary camera,” he highlights.