Tharun Bhascker Interview With Ram Venkat Srikar | Keedaa Cola | With English Subtitles

hi hey man hi so I'll start this interview on a slightly personal note if you allow me okay no I won't allow you okay you have to okay so I watch it at a time when I was doing this souling corporate job and correct correct that kind of you know at least that inspired me to quit my job and so thank you very much for uh inspiring me with your work and storytelling and you always said that you draw inspiration from this line that your father once told you that is Cinema is the greatest social cause

that you can do to the society because when all hope is lost if you can go and talk to him and you know that's that's I want to know from you what are some films that helped you on a healing level when you were down at different points of your life some films that inspired [Music] you kind of a but definitely Fight Club was a big shocker for meis this entire capitalist economies that we are in for a Dream anxiety zone of depression for it's not at all the kind of hopeful stuff that you talk abo

ut it scared me to touch drugs everis kind of understanding perspective colle they played Pursuit of Happiness oh wow that touched me a lot most impact terminal these four [Music] films but in terms of as a filmmaker okay okay it hit me like last STI does that thing right that like that hit me a lot and obviously filmsy moment I have a very big privilege yeah and you have to earn that privilege man 100 % of the earn J uh and I'm saying not just financially but also emotionally psychologically yo

u have to earn that privilege and that is the maturity of a character to get there also FM short film of mine got selected 2013 I remember I used to follow you on Facebook I remember your Tweet saying Wii yeah K I was very very nervous about uh that film beinged said you have to have a lot of courage to make a f my friends were also liking it it's just the obvious choice but I was blissfully ignorant about the reality of the world before it hit me and I was way too deep into film making by the t

ime by that time butd I went into that stream but I hope everybody finds it like that but if you don't you have to struggle a lot to get there the moment reality you know the pros and cons of entering a stream which you like which means you have to must up a lot of Courage that is why I said that's a way to live there's no other way there's no other better way to live because Soul suing that word soul sucking is very it is mentally takes a huge toll I think it's dangerous to do something you don

't like unfortunately Chi they get into jobs that they don't like and it's not a smooth way but every day at the end of the day if you're getting good sleep you're doing something you like but I was reading a profile of this Australian writer called Helen Garner she used to publish her diary she she's a very popular novelist and all she's like Australia's most beloved writer and all but she said that for her Joy writings are personal Diaries which she published okay so I'll paraphrase what she s

aid I think the Diaries are my best writing it's partly because I'm writing without an audience in my mind and I'm not writing on anyone's else say so and I'm not being paid for it correct it's just writing purely for pleasure and for trying to understand what's going on in my life correct okay well said but tarun when you making a film for the audience do you still have the same pleasure in the writing process uh so it is two-way street get aene and you want to build around it right comp the he

art of the f is I'm not say through you telling something about yourself clity you don't know where the film is going [Music] already adting I don't know how to end the film this is the main thing that will drive you forward okay moral compass you the style of it in fact the edit of it the characters that you personify as a theme or a facet of the theme you can try and amalgamate that and make that and contri that uh with keeping in mind the market what do I compare it to but at the heart of it

if that moral compass is adulterated I I don't know if it will work or not yeah see the beauty of what you said to add on to what you said it's about four friends but the way lot of people interpret the way I see that film is the meaning itself is that why is everybody in a rush right why can't you just leave a simple life laidback life so yeah I think what you said is beautiful and and you said that writing you treat your script as a collection that should be the purpose primary this will be ru

nning in the back of your mind 100% it has to back of the Mind process very clear my moral compass is set sorry for inter write starting starting point is my day Zero or day one begins with the theme okay okay into that otherwise of emotions there is nothing there to draw out of if you don't have this solid he said everything has this I'm very sure of I might be wrong this is my perspective on things it has worked for me observation k i this is my assumption of what not the other way around okay

have to take some time and live my life and then do a film I will do it that is why I'm taking time to you know get that out you're accumulating experiences and stories not consciously again to live my life by living by by living and then generally drawing out of that inference otherwise which there's no honesty in what I do and I don't know where I'm going wrong that's the biggest fear for me as a filmmaker the F anything could have gone wrong yeah yeah yeah okay maybe it didn't work out in my

Str okay something else I got to talk about okay but otherwise okay and while writing tun is this shot feasible is this shot executable does that keep poking you I think it becomes very uncons are going to be little and we going to do it the world of that film is that much the jup yeah that is notu that's not the world so I know the world to a certain extent and I don't know what I want to talk about so I stare clear in that direction not worrying too much about which uh shot is going to be exe

cutable orible there's no way it's going to Cross or exceed budgets if it does that's a production discussion okay but I'm not to limit myself in writing for sure and does it happen to you do you do you ever write for the camera for instance pelo one of the best scenes in the film isi going and you just static you capture everybody's reaction and [Music] visual do you ever write for the camera I'm writing I just go off in a flow okay but when I'm sitting down for short list short I'm very clear

how I want to show it visually so my descriptions are also very clear even film compan my screen play number varations you can do a Miss scene you can do like one static you can do like one dolly or whatever coming later but when I'm writing maximum describe just but the major short list is happening after after I break it down into thing that will change okay no problem that will change and from the two film experiences that you have what can go wrong where something can go wrong film did you t

ry to you know Implement those and can you break down how you try to implement those from pre-production very clearly long shorts I think in to a certain I broke the cuts are going to be frame to frame I thought they were destroying the film maybe I was right in that or maybe it could have made things more better you and I will never know that conscious effort to ster away from just those static shots just the static shots staying just like that on two characters letting them evolve relationship

okay there I try to keep a tinge of you know what the heart is somehow you will find one end card also okay uh that kind of sums it all up together in the hope that it has uh is it something about survival no no no it's not it's about money and it's about the main theme of K which is freedom so you will kind of piece it all together in the end hopefully so uh similar in terms of edit in terms of camera movements we went very Edgar right we went very gichi as an the and there are lots of homages

to gichi that you can find straight homage Traer snatch snatch yeah SN I love that cut it was just a fascinating cut so I thought we have to bring it to the audience let's see how they react okay so I think people are going to really enjoy that those are conscious things that have stared away very differently Froman and we talking about sink sound you are the guy who said that sink sound helped me find myself as a filmmaker correct what has happened with so unfortunate and fortunate thing initi

ally when we cast the entire thing and we realize the number of locations as you said this is a FM which is slightly at the risk of uh what Market we can create in terms of budget okay so you're pushing yeah pushing it okay eily easily recoverable we were at that edge of whether we can get there or not but we have to do this for the plot we have to do this for the world once the screen play is done it was a conscious choice not to include sing sound we know that it is not going to go according t

o plan 3 minutes if you have to shoot 6 minutes a day sing sound 30 you can only shoot 3 minutes a day they have to be the right yeah because voice also has to come out really well actor has to perform really well it there lot of exterior shots also in K where we dependent on the sun okay you have to wait for that to go down Will Shadow ISS the so we had to bring in the biggest asset very [Music] cleanly said and also it's aor comedy bed f yeah natural we had pilot track okay we use that pilot t

rack to capture room tone how how the sound is reacting there's a little r little Echo that characteristic of the sound we captured through pilot and we try to replicate that in the dubbing to give that natural effect K we also try to throw open voices in the dubbing can we add some depth to this G has a lot of shouting happening in the real shoot dubbing we wanted to tone that down maybe we wanted to make it a little more hilarious we wanted to change the voices of certain characters to get hum

or okay so and um especially it would be disadvantages only to chaitan Chan had that stammer and that tet syndrome thing happening all the time so once you do that you have to replicate that same sound in the D extremely difficult yeah except for him everything else was pretty clear but Chan did a fascinating job in the dub also so and see from what you said that you kind of draw obviously that you draw inspiration for films from your life would it be right to say again you can correct me if I'm

wrong with this Pulu had a bit of tun basar in it the characters and Ian was semi biopic of ss semi would you say that Kaka is probably the film that's most distant from your real life in terms of setting the setup of it gun but having said that people react like people like whether if if if if I'm holding a gun or I'm holding a pen I I can be intimidating in both ways so that depth of that characters whoever there these are characters I know I've seen in real life setting is alien characters a

re very much relatable yeah 100% I was watching an interview of yours P interview where you said that as you're getting busier you're not getting much time to watch films and probably learn from new stuff Arun as an Insider when you are exposed to the behind the scenes yeah part of the film industry how do you retain the movie lover in you and how do you keep learning even when you are interviewing behind the scenes you will get a lot of info there will come a film which will break all that and

still give you that magic gun huh you will always be immersed it always happens okay at can they always happen they will inspire you atlanti luckily they're always there around us and no matter how much you learn about behind the scenes or how many films you do you get lost into that zone and you just snap with it that moment happens at least twice or th at I wait for I watch and that inspires by the way those films only increase our standard right keep pushing us they keep pushing us hopefully

that never dies out he 90 years he's still excited about Cinema manaa but enthusiasm juicy it gives me a hope that it will take me at least few births to understand the game of Cinema and I'm still just a drop in the ocean and that's a big hope I have that there's so much more to learn and to get fascinated by what a film in recent times like you said that shook you that's a tough question anything I discussed with you guys yeah yeah yeah hostel hostel days that really hit me solidly one cut of

the Dead I had like one awesome feeling and I thought can this happen here so I really liked it a lot also really push me to thege breaks you from all those shackles and he pushes you off into that over the top emotion you just get zaed into it and that is a craft man like I was like that so that happened so uh you talked about your films in a way Y is a film about Hope is also a film about Hope and you said that hope Kaka looks like it it leans more towards chaos right can we say Kaka is Tun Ba

s un JS ah yeah very nice so I think there is a lot of Chaos in Kida but uh it is very clear man it is very clear as you turn the page you will find where it started from very clearly as you keep watching the film you keep turning the pages you will see the heart of the film very clearly and that is not at all adulterated as I said right right right that is very clear uh what I wanted to say through the film about Freedom or money is a very very clear thing that keeps coming through in every min

ute of the film there's no doubt about that how it is treated is very different and just like un uncut JS is a massive crazy but uh you will find the chaos and it will make sense every minute hopefully and you talk about freedom and I feel sad because there is that one shot of a head being blown off in the teaser unfortunately we know that it's not likely to make it to the theaters don't you think it's a bit sad I have my personal thing about that but we have to do it after so we'll have to see

we'll have to see I think it will be passed off we made sure that the physics of the explosions are also slightly like uh how you shoot a bullet into a fruity can okay you know it just explodes like one Center fresh so it's not like something that is intense so we try to balance both the world but still it's just kind of that's that but you will not feel thatness in you Gentle gentl brother Arjun s gentleman he holds a his brother's heart it is not that K cannot be there it's not done going to t

he depth of how because you're not associated with the characters that are being shot off like thead yeah the bad guys and of the entire film is also set in a way where you don't take people to personally also that's the idea which is why to Red Sy and all that Also it talks about certain people but doesn't really uh hit you hard in terms of uh the action like you won't like really feel the oh that won't be there so I have a question how do you how do you make sure that the audience don't take t

hem seriously but you still have to create characters that the audience will root for it's very simple man people will relate to character characters in terms of their actions okay in terms of their thought process their wants and needs wants and needs can beer you will find it very relatable he's in the wrong setting or the right setting or whatever you don't know that setting but you would have done things what he's doing it's like a video game okay okay you want to play first person because y

ou emote to that guy so I think that relatability will always be there whether that fellow is kgf or you know he's you know in working in some mind field we'll still relate to that guy that's why even War films we are so intrigued by it because what would you have done if you were in his position and how do you root that character you root that character by actually giving him a family giving him emotional choices that you would have made if you were stakes and the uh what do you call the Ordina

ry World of that character that should be relative you said crime crime com is one of your favorite genres what about the genre fascinates you the most uh quirky characters quirky see when I think that it's very real crime is comedy the crime is comedy crime is comedy the moment you actually see crime from another perspective it becomes comical simple thing like this [Music] man so crime is comedy and but this characters are serious about it you look at them and laugh so again I have a I have an

observation and you can once again correct me if I'm I'm wrong I don't think you let the box office performance of take control over you because pelu was what I describe see New Age film but to me pelu is a pretty wholesome film it's a four quadrant film parents but was the appeal of was restricted to the youth but okay after 5 years it got the validation and all the Redemption but anybody performance anybody would want to go and make a more wholesome four quadrant film right but you didn't do

that which mean you didn't let the box office dictate your choice not at allive sucess I was very happy but at that point of time massive anxiety attack started after after success so N I had to take a break I had to go off into one zone and try to understand the depth of one of the reasons that I noted down now I have aure of giving it back to the people who have expectations delivering delivering yeah I wanted to run away from that nonsense a to that to fail let me fail it is okay interest is

it recoverable can I pay my producers or investor back that money with the interest hopefully making it 2x or 3x that is my major agenda as a director that is my first priority to give back that money so I don't want anybody to even my exhibitors my Distributors the end of the entire chain that's the biggest nightmare that any director has I think first priority is to get there so I would have and I know that I'm making a comedy I know that comedy is enjoyable in the theater and then he went ahe

ad knowing for a fact that I went to one actor in the industry he met me veryan actor thank God I took the decision of staring away I would have hated myself to be thatu guy who talks about marriage family all the time like I would have [Music] felt the same way how you are doing a 9 to5 job and somebody else is do living the dream life how it feels the same way I'll feel so it was very clear that the decision I took was right and ethically what am I doing producer producers happy my exhibitors

are happy all the people in the chain are happy know I'm not sticking in the box that's fine media is going to make this out of [Music] proportion I thought let me deal with that it's okay okay because at the end of the day it's between you and the audience is an outside and expect I would like to break it every time because for me that is freedom I came into making a film because I wanted to fight for my freedom it's the way you live your life it is not I'm a free person you will be again entan

gled with expectations they will again be bosses around around you comment section but to override all of that and still do what you love is an everyday battle even if you're doing what you love so I am very conscious of that because for me I need to sleep well at night I need to know that I'm making the Right Moves that's it I don't have to answer to anyone so how you know mentally absolutely F super so since you see I I wouldn't I hate calling you a comedy director you're not a comedy director

but your films have a lot of humor right okay and we are living in the age of wokeness correct okay so Todd Philips The Hangover the person who made hangover I'll I'll quote him okay he said see when he was asked why he's not making comedy films anymore he said something so remarkable Ono that is go try to be funny nowadays with this work culture there will be articles written about why comedies don't work anymore I'll tell you why because all the funny guys are like this because I don't want t

o offend you T do you feel the pressure to be on the right side of the spectrum when you writing something I did in fact can you give an example without spoiling um because if I talk about it it'll definitely spoil something so there was a scene that I cut off from the film okay hoping that I don't offend certain people I don't know if we are offending people genuine or people just want to join the bandwagon of just trying to be right cons as a character towards the end if he's giving up alcohol

and rejoining his friends Cinema it's about a journey of recovery for Vi so I know the depth of what I am doing consciously he will realize that alcohol is not his priority relationships are B yeah and it's causing that fear in him that he's losing himself right if going to be a flagbearer of a fake Revolution just to amass people's attention and to try and be woke that is not genuine empathy when I'm making a film I am very conscious about my ethics we are making fun of that character is that

a disability Tata has a urine packet in his thing now everybody else now sikander has a weird limb flaw fla FL characters but what I'm saying is weird is a new normal there is no such thing as uh let's treat this person like this let's treat why should you give special attention to somebody who's basically um got some kind of disability people have mental disability people have psychological disabilities you can't quantify them you can't look at them everybody's going through now you have to be

you have to be practical hyperal Pat them on the back joke with them have a fun conversation they have to be you know bold enough to take a joke make a joke go on with life because nobody cluses you uh better than life yeah so don't think that it's going to be Rosy out there we've got to prep up our people so real empathy you will not say let's protect them because you are only doing that because you want to appear nice no that is not the woke culture the woke culture is let's Empower these disa

bilities let's empower conversations let let's Empower them let's make them a part of our thing let's show them what real be a real parent the real parenting is just not putting a child in a cocon it is about walking them through the hardships of Life understanding that son this is what life is going to be it's okay you know what you just got to man up and do it you're short it's okay doesn't matter but make jokes about yourself take it in your pride live a good life that kind of empathy only Ci

nema can do don't claim you know what this is not happening that's not happening that I find unreal there are certain things definitely if people are regressive about certain things which are [Music] toxic talk about it but don't stop the voice of a filmmaker it's supposed to create a debate that debate is going to create some kind of awareness let's have that debate but just because you want to appear like a flag bearer of some reolution Progressive be woke don't be fake so so when you are writ

ing how do you run it past people say women or how how does it happen and then now it's becoming difficult quite honestly what he said Is Right it's becoming difficult people are just on the edge just because they want to be on the yeah they just want to be on the edge they are personally hurt by some uh this thing about something that triggers something in that college or something and they're like no no how can you say that you should have dealt with your bullies in the right way not come here

because you have a mic and you're talking about it and okay genuinely some filmmakers talk about uh their side of the story if a filmmaker is basically talking about a world it exists it exists it's coming from some kind of yeah let's say you're going to talk about height issues somebody shot you've seen that guy you're reflecting what you've seen and you're putting it on a film now when you put it on a film you can debate and you can talk about it you can't cancel out his voice because it's a

reflection of what's happening in society how how are you encouraging a great debate you have to be open about it you cannot stop somebody else's voice you have to talk about it what is right what is wrong with you can't condemn and say you cannot make a film about those people or you cannot use this you can't you have to allow everybody to talk you allow everybody to engage in debate and conversation I think that is more enlightening and empowering but you're right it just uh is a very very dic

ey thing to do it's like walking on a line of fire whether it's working or it's not working as a Creator how do you know whether it's working or not there's some innate sense of humor All My Siblings also I mean my sorry my siblings my cousins were also funny my family members were funny so there's a certain standard of jokes already G up and my friends in college they have a high standard of humor okay so Kik will you think about I show to my people so I have a judgment about what's working wha

t's not working for my people and their standard of humor is high so it helps me okay oh we came up to that but he broke all those Norms he was like like he was like he going to age like brahmanandam sir okay so you know I'm going to age like him in terms of his Persona on screen is a different what you see brahmanandam s is different from what the real brahmanandam s is so he's exactly like all the humorous people that I've seen and I've met and his Taste of humor also is very very much like mi

ne St to say come on let's do it so he's just flips like that and he's just making jokes at you he's he's like a gangster man okay so I really loved working with him because he wouldn't take anything too seriously uh he's not a person who take offense and he knows he sees through you so if your intention is right and know he is great to work with from where do you seek validation see at the end of the day we are all see I'm pretty sure you are the filmmaker you want the audience to love the film

you want the critics to love the film uh so but during the process or see sometimes that validation what are your sources of validation feel like I've done a the entire process of making Rula where was that one point where I felt okay I've made a film it is in the Final Cut of the film which is going to be exported to the cube you all the Departments are Amalgamated and it comes together like that that is the one time I felt right during I I got that validation I made this okay I did this and t

hen recently kakola just two days back when I saw like awesome dude now I've done this and because I realized maybe in a way I'm looking for validation with people obviously externally externally we seeking for validation and we get Disturbed with comments the greatest gratification it is at that part where we are exporting the film to the people get my I think I get my validation from myself because I set a standard which is too high for myself and I keep trying hard to reach that whether I've

reached that or not okay genuinely I'm saying it obviously it will affect okay after two days it's done but when you see the film it's the biggest validation man for me a couple of questions couple of final questions test screenings you have done like how was your experience with Tex screening test screening so far I feel that people come with some kind of obligated everybody is dissecting the film but imagine [Music] C okay I think it'll be worth my two hours he wants to enjoy the film so he co

mes with an intention to enjoy he's allowing the director okay that is the audience that we looking for it was a mad rush I didn't take anything away from the fact I just SE some validation okay constantly you got it got it I got validation I also got it was [Music] mixed as I'm going forward I feel that as long as I have a sensible judgment but there will always be a select few people my in the media doesn't affect [Music] them will take criticism and feedback because I know that they are with

me so that is important for me T screen maybe not re it might change over time I don't and most of the time it's done that's what you're ading the dead body with post we can fix this in post it's a very small very wrong thing in film making you can't you can't really go back to the bones of the film and save it it's a fail there only so I was watching a previous interview of yours and in which you said that hardest part is while writing it is the second act okay inter are you getting better with

it I'm getting better with it my second act is filled with introduction of new characters okay yeah because there eight characters so linear plar nonlinear whatever narrative three struct third resolution introduction of the new world you have toy around with the uh journey of that primary character and here I had a better canvas you there are eight characters and I can talk about anybody I want and fill up that thing coming down to that clima so it was relatively easier but will I do the same

with a single character single protagonist R second I'm yet to discover that in the next project but I am definitely getting better because narrative devices the tools that I'm using to rectify that are honing R finding new tools and now with AI also it's become very easy to get feedback man okay yeah yeah feed screen story you can ask chat gp4 to give you a review what themes is it touching on where do you think it's weak what what can the character go ahead and do are the needs and wants confl

icting are they actually uh going in the right direction is it thematically aligning with the theme of the film the character's Journey these are great questions that you can ask on you know artificial intelligence model get uh nonp partiality based answers objective objective answers sorry objective answers so I'm happy I can do it in the corner of my room without actually facing humiliation so yeah so it's getting better so I'm priming myself with tools to make the weakest part of my stories b

etter this was a hack we got eight characters can I do the same with two characters is a question that I have to ask myself in the next okay on that note uh tarun thank you very much for the man thank you so much thank you very much for your time I'm very eagly looking forward to Kaka definitely November 3rd n pami hopefully for everyone all the always a pleasure talking to film companion I love the name also because the truest companion is a film exactly yeah thanks thank you okay so and who ar

e those three friends you okay if you had to pick somebody your characters man you're like real characters in your life yeah I have a couple of friends I have a friend named abasha She's also okay describe her as in what would she what kind of personalities what kind of personality she is she's a crazy person she's a very very she loves films okay she loves films to the core so I'll go with her and she spontaneous very she's very funny yeah she's very spontaneous yeah okay she I think she charac

ter any anybody else uh for the friends so okay um yeah film is your only companion literally film comp okay so what about you what kind of person are you you like I'm more like to be very honest yeah I'm that laid back I'm not very adventurous like the rest of the people at like lancham and's characters more Super so what I'm trying to say is I think there's a character that you like in for everyone for everyone okay I hope you come back and tell me what characters [Music] awesome