It wouldn’t be wrong to call editor-director Anil Krishnan a prodigy. After all, it’s not often that you find someone having developed editing skills by the age of 15. “I don’t know how I learnt editing,” says Anil, who is best remembered for his short film Lost Paradise and feature film Idhuvum Kadandu Pogum, the latter directed along with Srihari Prabhaharan. “It’s just that I had interest in films and I started editing songs even when I was 15. But I always wanted to become a director,” he adds. The VISCOM graduate from GRD College of Arts and Science, who has edited the upcoming English flick On A Quest, which is directed by R S Prasanna, says that he is super-excited about the movie and is eagerly awaiting its release. “I watched the film some 150 times. That’s the advantage of being an editor. You get to watch films even before they release,” he says.
Ask him about the overall experience working on a big project like On A Quest, and he shares, “The experience was a different one indeed. I was a spot-editor and therefore, was present during the entire shoot and even accompanied the crew to Dharamshala. Those were indeed the best days of my career.” And it’s not just On A Quest that Anil’s excited about. He has come up with his first feature film script as well. “All I’m doing now is looking for a producer. I can’t share details about the film now,” he says.
So, how did he develop an interest in films at the first place, given that he doesn’t come from a film background? “I used to watch films from a young age and was very much fascinated by them.
All I knew and know now is cinema and nothing else. Cinema is my life,” says Anil, who runs the Pixelite Studios with his friend Jerin Raja, a software engineer. Anil made a move to Chennai, with his family, to find a job as an assistant director. “Direction was my first choice though I was good at editing. But it so happened that I had no job for six months. I eventually came across a newspaper advertisement about a workshop, which was to be conducted by R S Prasanna. I took part in it. But again, I decided to edit as most of the others at the workshop chose to direct.
That’s how the short film Kandupudi, directed by Arun Sudhakar happened,” he adds. And while he developed contacts through this episode, he also became close to Prasanna and started discussing his work with him. “In due course of time Prasanna became my mentor,” he states. However, the major breakthrough for Anil came when he was chosen to edit season three of the TV show Naalaya Iyakkunar. “That’s when millions of people came to know about my editing skills and I started getting loads of offers,” he says. Alternating between the roles of a director and actor isn’t easy for Anil, but he says that it’s this field that he would want to continue in.
“I would like to be known both as a director and editor. It’s cinema that I would always want to be associated with,” he signs off with a smile.
