Like his film, he is full of energy and fun. He speaks thousand interesting words per minute. He did not allow success enter his head. Cool and casual, Director Ashwath Marimuthu speaks to us about his film, about his red-carpet entry into the film industry and also a bit about being oneself. Here we go:
Who is your all-time inspiration(s)?
Gautham Vasudev Menon, Rajkumar Hirani, Frank Capra, SS Rajamouli.
How you chose cinema as a career?
Cinema was not my aspiration from childhood. My parents wanted me to be a doctor. I got a medical seat but chose engineering because I wanted to have fun. Frankly! In engineering, when I wrote C++ codes, I used to get a minimum 100 bugs. I had arrears and couldn’t sit for even placements. But in college, I was known for doing short films in culturals. I used to act as well. In my final year culturals, the entire auditorium laughed and clapped for my short film. On hearing 3,000 students clapping for me, I felt very happy. That’s the first time in my life I got my confidence - I am able to entertain people and maybe I should take it as my career. I never looked back from then.
How did you bring in a fantasy element the fun RomCom movie genre? Also, ‘’Oh My Kadavule’’ had a time travel concept, how did you bring everything together?
Yes, the story demanded fantasy. If marriages are made in heaven, why do so many people opt for divorce? Did God write their fate differently? What went wrong? What if he starts a court to handle these divorce cases himself was the idea that sparked. So, when there is God, obviously there is fantasy. When there is marriage, there is obviously romance and comedy. Hence, a fantasy rom-com. I always wanted to do a time travel film, but it should be easily conveyed to the audience. So, I derived the idea of the ticket from Michelangelo's creation of Adam picture. Watch the scene before the interval carefully, we staged the scene just like the picture.
Also well-made romcoms are timeless just like ''Poove Unakaga'', "Kushi" etc. I felt I could tell stories which are fun yet meaningful and has a repeat audience. Hence, I took close to five years to arrive at the final draft of OMK. Long, but worth it.
Being a debut director, how was the welcome from the industry?
Frankly, your film will do the talking. I was nobody until the film released. Now after watching the film, a lot of celebrities from the industry take their time to call and appreciate my work as a writer and director. Also, I am getting a lot of appreciation from big producers for completing a film of this scale in 35 days.
How do you see this success?
Actually, more than the success, I am happy for my parents and friends who finally feel proud of me. They have been the pillar. Success is part of the journey and I strongly feel success of a film is decided by the script. The more effort you put in writing, the better the outcome is. There is no formula for success. It’s just pure hard work and smart work.
Can you share one challenge that was very tough to handle and one funny moment you cherished during the shooting of OMK.
Like I said the challenge was to write an honest film. Sometimes, you try to cheat yourself and write it for the gallery and finally when you read it, you feel you are not honest. It took a lot of time to write an honest film and that was the challenge for me. The funny moments in the film are quite a lot. But the one I will cherish forever is, on the first day of shoot, my assistant directors and I started throwing wheat flour on each other’s face like how it happens in the film as if we completed the entire film. The entire unit saw us like crazy idiots, but that’s how we are. We are instantaneous and do what we want without thinking what others would think.
What is the take home aspect for you after this movie?
I took home a huge responsibility. Which is the trust that people have for me to make good films. May be, I would take time to do my next film but will never compromise on the content!