Unsurpassable!
A mile stone in Indian and Tamil Cinema! That is how synonymous this can get
with Dasavatharam! How can someone even think of such a grand, glossy,
brilliant, mind blowing screenplay at a time when film making wasn't developed
enough to visualize its actual potential? But we do have a polymath who’s one
of his kinds to do this and he did. The name is Kamal Haasan rightly called
fondly by his fans as “Ulaga Nayagan “Celebrating 13 years of Dasavatharam
here is an exclusive from his archive on the making.
A
coveted file which makes more sense when released today than yesterday. When
you make art for posterity do not expect sponsors to be in agreement .They are
temporary and would think only for the moment. The greatest sponsors are
artists themselves fortunately in history sponsors have also been connoisseurs
for instance and hence it helped art. You cannot expect that from corporations
in a hurry who work for a quarterly review. People with vision register in
history. For instance the Mogul Emperor, the German Monarch, Ashoka ,Chola and
many more down the line in history.
Thus
spoke Kamal Haasan.
Dasavatharam
-The Thought and Process:
Talking
about embarking on this journey of making He begins by saying Dasavatharam was
a script which was declined by many directors who said they didn't understand
it, and quite unexpectedly Mr Ravikumar jumped at it. He immediately claimed it
a winner on cards and was surprised that it was turned down and asked to make
the film while on
a
telephonic conversation with me at Eldams road. That's how the movie came into
being!
Most
of the time I work alone and like to take the opinion of seniors and well
wishers while on a project. For Dasavatharam it wasn’t any different and thus I
wanted to take Mr Mukta Srinivasan's opinion as he has string instincts and is
a brilliant short story writer. In Nayakan, thanks to Mr Mukta, the Heroine's
character was beautifully written as a young girl who prepares her exams while
being an inmate in a brothel. He heard the Dasavatharam script and he said
"Kamal you must watch over the film closely as its your idea and goes
further and says foster it like your child. They will kill the child otherwise
if you only decide to walk in and out of shoot". I took his advice and
spent all my time on it.
Once
I finished the logline with Mr Mukta Srinivasan, the director was still skeptical
about the way the script was written. We had Mr Sujata, Mr Madhan, Mr Ramesh
Arvind, Mr Crazy Mohan all sit with us for a narration and I answered all the
questions they kept asking. It was a very important exercises as they are all
are experts and have the expertise to analyze the script. My biggest support
was from Mr Sujatha who said “you got it bang on man". The rest were new
to the ideation, scale and budget .
The
Beginning:
Any
producer would have found it ridiculous that the director and I went to the US
for 21
days to do make up tests for all the looks, but we did it. Mr Michael Westmore
bent over backwards and did a stupendous job during the trial. Every day for 21 days was hard work and
one time Mr Michael also pushed himself in helping me with wiring
me
for a photo shoot held me too as I wanted to try a kick a certain way.
Sometimes I did two different looks /make ups as we were building the makeup in
layers and it was done in a lab. During the process Mr Ravikumar realized the
full scope of the looks and immediately engaged a photographer for $250 a day to record each
look.
Our
producer was enthusiastic to immediately release all of the 10 looks in the media.
However I had to stop him by telling him that people would not find a need to
go to a cabaret or a strip tease if the advertising posters had images from the
final climax and there is nothing further to entice them in! I knew we had
something precious and convinced him to hold back and am grateful he understood
then. I had taken to heart the advice of Mr Mukta Srinivasan to closely guard
my baby and just kept doing that.
Towards
the ends of the filming, during the tsunami sequence we realized we needed a
crore more to achieve the visuals written by me for the climax. Now people
nonchalantly talk about 20 to 30 crores , but back then it was huge . I offered
to rewrite the script without the tsunami and end it with the train sequence,
but the butterfly effect would have been lost. But I was willing to do it’s I
had to have an alternative our producer You must remember here that I once made
a film named Vikram which was then called 'oru kodi rubai kanavu', but within
two decades it was about a crore more for just one sequence, but that's the
evolution of cinema with technology. However, Mr Ravikumar had fully understood
the script and fought tooth and nail to get the climax done as scripted
originally and we spent the additional 1 crore. I gave Mr Ravichandran some of my rights
to the film as I ALWAYS invest in my movies and we were partners in the film
and he had seen my vision to fruition and we pulled off what was near
impossible then.
That's
how Dasavatharam was made and saw completion.
The
Technicians :
Everyone
was pushed to their limits during to achieve the project ; Ms Gauthami's
contribution , art director Mr Sameer Chanda did the first 10 minutes of the film and
left , Mr Thota Tharani picked up from there followed by Mr Prabhakar who did
the airport sequences they all did a fabulous job . I remember that Mr Jeeva
was supposed to be the cinematographer but couldn't take up the project. We had
so many other good technicians who weren't able to come on board.The entire
concept of the film was new and challenging, like just the first 10 minutes sequence in re
creating a period cost 2.5 crores which was new to everyone. I am not being
myopic to budgets, it is just that I am grateful to each and every technician
who stood by me and made me achieve my vision. Be it art directors, stunt
directors as some of the Stunt sequences were like never before, the CG team
who we used to quarrel with over budgets as they wanted 2 million and we used to
ask them to show us a khadi Gramodyog way of achieving the output and that's
why due the lack of budgets some portions of CG might not look the way it is
supposed to have looked. All of my technicians helped me complete the project
through all the insults, quarrels, stressful environment etc and I am grateful
to them and on the other hand, I would never forget or forgive those
technicians who gave up and ran away like rats ditching the project. If you
believe in something, it can always be achieved and example from way before is
Aboorva Sagotharargal. It was not done by just a number crunching producer, but
a visionary too. So also Pushpak, which had two visionaries and a businessman
as producers helming it and hence it was done in a small tight budget and
yielded great results.
The
looks and the makeup :
Mr
Westmore is a master of his craft and believes in least intervention with
reality while creating a look and I consider him my Guru. He delves into the
script completely and works on the looks. So much so he asked me why I had
decided to name the samurai Shingen Narahachi and I had to explain to him how I
am weaving in mythology and this character was an analogy to the Narasimma
avatar and hence 'Shingen' like 'Narasinghar’It was amazing how he made my
round eyes into beautiful Asian flat eyes to give me the perfect look for the
character. Naidu was so simple yet went up a notch because of the accent. Mr
Westmore's contribution to the film is equivalent to mine. Mr Westmore was the 11th Avatar of the film,
without him the other 10 would not have been possible. The easiest to
carry off was Naidu and the most debilitating was Krishna paati. For the latter
he gave me a cataract eye and I couldn't see. I was like a tortured animal and
wanted the scenes with the paati character to finish soon. It used to
excruciatingly painful everytime there would be a delay due to technical
issues.
Those
apart now am going to talk about the actual “FIRST LOOK” of a few of the
characters
I
preferred this Bhuvaraghavan but the team were too surprised or probably they
did not recognise me at all,but I have many friends who look like that too but
this was denied for various reasons .Though it was a personal favourite of Mr
Mike and me but we ended up having a more handsome looking Bhuvaraghavan .For
me personally handsome
was
never about that face but that is what cinema loves so we decided on a slightly
more cosmetic look for Bhuvaraghavan.
The
cliché look of what a scientist looks like in Tamil cinema was a bespectacled
nerdy guy almost okayed a wig slapped on head that looked more like a scholarly
cap than hair. Mike and I decided not to tamper with that and I felt that’s the
only part where I play myself but for various other characters I had to shave
my head based on schedule so unfortunately I landed up with a wig well done for
the days I can see through it now but then it seemed convincing, so went with
that. otherwise I would have settled for Govind who was balding which Mike
would have pulled off like a wizard that he is.
Balram
Naidu wigs took 2
redos and finally ended up taking 2months making us nervously teeter on the edge of
breaking a schedule but it landed on time. My personal trainer who’s been with
me for years did not recognise me as he stood beside Balram while the shot was
being prepped. I wore the least prosthetic pieces for Naidu. Applause to the
wig maker and Michael Westmore once again.
The
director wasn’t happy with this version of Mr Bush because he was looking for a
hero with every character I was also looking for villains as a writer and Bush
was an international villain according to me.
Unforgettable
moments:
Most
unforgettable was the first sequence where in I had come up with a lot of the
designs as the others didn't know how to visualise or present it but I already
had lessons out of experience from Maruthanayagam and taking notes from on not
over building anything unrealistically but keep it believable. For example the
two guards standing on either sides of the elephant was designed by me. It was
novel for us, but done in history where in the bodyguards would protect the king
while on an elephant. It is basically two footboards on either sides and the
elephant actually felt very comfortable with the footboards pressing into it.
We wanted to make a masterpiece and we didn't look at money or fame, just our
contribution to the art of cinema. We had various Stunt directors supporting us
which can be seen in various styles portrayed through the film as Fletcher's
stunts had to be different from the Samurai and tat from the first and all this
within a shoe string budget.
The
Music:
Lots
of music directors found the script uninteresting and I was confused by their
reactions. Worried by this, the producer said he will suggest names and suggest
Mr Himesh Reshammiya and added on Ms Mallika Sherawat too as his suggestion. Mr
Himesh did a wonderful job with the music when it was a time the press wasn't
very supportive of him. He delivered surprises like Mukunda Mukunda and Kallai
matum kandal which were big hits and wasn't like anything he did before. He
allowed me to render the palandu palandu bit and added it as a overlap to his
music. I was very embarrassed as I was conducting a group of singers here to
record it and send it to him. We never worked together again, but he proved a
point with his good work then. The BGM was by
Mr
DSP who was a bundle of energy and fun to work with. Exemplary points were when
Naidu realizes Srinivasulu is Telugu where it isn't subtlety but on the top
humor. We had so much fun working together that we decided to carry on the
collaboration with him, the director and myself on to Manmadhan Ambu.
We
did not have good budgets for any of the artists/ technicians who came from
overseas as with the conversion rates it was much lower to what they would get
otherwise, but no one complained. Everyone worked with enthusiasm and enjoyed
the process of being a part of a novel project.
But
going back on the memories now, Dasavatharam was a master class for me on every
technical aspect . There were many masters to teach and learn from and cinema
was the ultimate master and very forgiving when we failed in some parts,
definitely more forgiving than the audience who made it a hit. I can say I
learnt democracy during the making of this film. The project would not have
been possible with just me , or just Mr Ravikumar or Mr Ravichandran or just Mr
Westmore. It is all of us together that made it happen.
