Sreekar Prasad’s Twitter bio fittingly reads, ‘Learning is an everyday experience’. Even after 600 films and 9 National Awards in a career spanning nearly 4 decades, the enthusiasm in his voice when he discusses his craft is palpable. Over the course of his career, he has seen it all—successes, failures, criticism, accolades, creative challenges, and more. Does he still find newer challenges and tougher obstacles in his craft? “Every film is a challenge. Every filmmaker is unique. If there are 60 scenes in a film, we have 60 challenges. And once it is all put together, it leads to another bigger challenge. It is not the easiest of the jobs but if you enjoy the process, it doesn’t tell on you.”
Excerpts:
From your 38 years of experience, how do you look at the sensation created by RRR among the western audience?
It is a huge surprise because we knew that it is a creation of a filmmaker who is known for making larger-than-life films, and it was made for a specific audience — Telugu people. When we started off, I liked the fact that RRR had the soul of a Telugu film. Many films labelled pan-India films should be called pan-India releases instead because they don’t cater to everyone. People from the North are seeing them as South Indian films. So I was happy that SS Rajamouli wanted to make a Telugu film.
Although there have been instances of our films reaching the Western audience, they are mostly restricted to Indian pockets or the film festival circuits. The reach of RRR in the West is an eye-opener because we believed that the song-and-dance routine was a hindrance in presenting our films abroad. I am happy that it reached them because it is usually us who keep getting excited about their films and it is a nice feeling to see the West reciprocate the same excitement.
I also think RRR is SS Rajamouli’s most evolved work because it knows where to use silence. The scene where Bheem meets Malli uses silence beautifully…
It is an emotional moment that holds on its own. The filmmaker has to make the moments work. Even Mani Ratnam uses silences a lot. He tries to create a blend of silence and music that helps the emotion and does not just underline what’s on screen. Sometimes, there is music for everything; if they cry, there’s music, if they laugh, there’s music. It takes away from cinema, which is not just a commercial tool but a person’s expression. This purpose is being defeated because films are not being consumed as a whole these days; there is an inclination to enjoy individual moments, and when you walk out, you don’t remember the whole film. Temporary gratification is taking over the larger experience.
The attention span of the audience has clearly taken a beating and they are becoming restless due to silence…
Attention span has definitely gone down due to the advent of other mediums like the internet and smartphones. But the restlessness in theatres is not related to the attention span but to the sound in theatres. Our audience have been habituated to hearing sound at incredibly higher levels for years now. Even a mediocre product can be bombarded with a lot of music so the audience doesn’t even have the option to think. Filmmakers think that the audience won’t be receptive to the film if not for the music. What the filmmaker doesn’t understand is that if the scene or the emotional moment holds well, silence will also work. Sometimes, filmmakers and we want silence, but we fear the reactions.
Is working with younger filmmakers a more liberating and, say, authoritative experience?
There is no such thing as an authority here because we are all working towards a common goal. While working with a youngster, there is a new kind of excitement from their ideas and style. This excitement is what I am chasing at my age. See, there is an easy way of making films—establishing shot, close and mid. Unfortunately, 70 per cent of Indian cinema is verbose. What is the difference between that and theatre? If the younger filmmakers want to experiment, the first thing I tell them is to reduce the verbosity so it becomes a cinematic experience. You may have social messages and might even want to educate people, it is a free form. What matters is how cinematically it is told.
You have been someone who has closely observed both South cinema and Bollywood. What is your take on the changing dynamics?
Until a few years ago, the North belt was only consuming films made by Bollywood. But in the past decade, a lot of people began watching Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada films. Around five years ago, I was working on a Telugu romantic film and at first we removed all the fight scenes. But we had to add all of them later to sell the Hindi version. I noticed that there were a lot of stakes for the producer. Hindi cinema has been making similar films for the past few years. I think they will also come back now, with Pathaan doing well. It is just a phase of disconnect between the audience and the filmmakers.
BILLA (2007)
“I share a good rapport with filmmaker Vishnuvardhan and the trickiest part about Billa was that it’s a remake. I had seen the original Tamil/Hindi versions. to death. But the director focused on the style and we helped him portray it on screen. So even familiar scenes worked well.”
SIVARANJANIYUM INNUM SILA PENGALUM (2020)
“I was really impressed with the realism Vasanth imbued in his making and how he executed the shots—like Mani Ratnam. The shots have a lot of synergy between the actors and the camera. He brought the sort of mood that heightened the realism.”