The way country’s most celebrated cinematographer reacted to an offer for acting could have offended the one who actually made the offer. But that was not how it actually turned out. When Lenin Rajendran first suggested the matter, Santosh Sivan went on laughing till he realised that Lenin Rajendran was not joking and that he badly needed a ‘fresh, intense and highly expressive’ face to do the role of painter Raja Ravi Varma in his new movie ‘Makaramanju’.
“I was shooting for ‘Ravana’ when Lenin rang me up and told me about the role. I was shocked and just started laughing. When I shared this with Prithviraj, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram, they too did the same. After the share of fun I understood that Lenin was serious about it and again I was shocked,” says Santosh Sivan deedily forcing some life into his face fagged by a long day devoted to interviews.
“I still don’t know why Lenin was so particular about me,” he wonders. The answer from the director is simple. He could strike certain similarities between Ravi Varma and Santosh Sivan. He finds both men incredibly blessed, industrious and obsessed with anything that is beautiful. For Santosh Sivan the foray into the focus of lens was indeed hard, the distance seemed too long. He simply couldn’t concentrate and would keep thinking whether he had given the right shot. “My eyes kept flitting around even in the middle of the shot. I was more interested in lights, location and the angle of camera. I couldn’t help it,” he says.
The physical transformation he was to bring in was even harder. All of a sudden he had to pump off his immense reservoir of energy and had to look mellowed and meditative. A sense of sophistication was to be brought in his mien, strides, garb and even in his glances. “That is why I often felt that I was actually acting which made me think too much about what I was doing. It was then Ambili chettan (Jagathy Sreekumar) who told me that never care about acting and just do what you feel like and that there is a director to see the rest,” says Santosh Sivan who seemed a happier person in his unruly curls and a dull tinted shirt abundantly blessed with folds.
Sitting by the side and keenly watching through her goggles that almost entirely masked her face was Karthika who does the role of model and Urvashi in ‘Makaramanju’. The second year undergraduate at London School of Economics feels that the experience was memorable. During the shoot, she sat through an entire day all decked up in Kathak costume and performed Kathak absolutely clueless about the dance form. She waded into the chill waters inside a dense forest in Karnataka without knowing that the lake was notorious for crocodiles. “When I came out of water after the shoot everyone was gaping at me in silence. I was worried if I had got the shot wrong. But then one of the crew members came to me and said “Hey, are you ok? See we were doubtful if we could get that shot perfect with so many crocodiles in it.” I felt like fainting when he told me so,” smiles Karthika earnestly tuning her English accented tongue to dish out some Malayalam.
In a film that is fraught with intense emotions, both the lead actors say that never did they feel uncomfortable. “I was working with a bunch of seasoned professionals. Hence I was at ease even when I was asked to do scenes where I had to lower the saree or when I had to do intense emotional scenes with Santoshji . You tend to be uncomfortable only when you feel that what you are doing is vulgar. But I never felt that and I knew perfectly what I was doing,” says Karthika.
Though pleased to have portrayed Raja Ravi Varma on screen, Santosh Sivan is circumspect about acting. “It all depends on what you want to do. But I have not acted before the camera for quite a while. Cinematography and direction seem to define me in a much clearer tones and I am happy about that.”