''SS RAJAMOULI WAS ONLY 70% HAPPY WITH BAAHUBALI''

With regard to Indian cinema’s advancement with special effects, Enthiran and Baahubali are two movies that stand as a benchmark. Though they were the visions of directors Shankar and SS Rajamouli, the contribution of one man cannot be missed out.

Yes, we are talking about Srinivas Mohan, one of our country’s finest visual effects designers, who is fresh from winning his fourth National Award for Best Special Effects for Baahubali: The Beginning. He takes time out of his busy Enthiran 2.0 schedule, to catch up with Behindwoods for a small interesting interview.

Hearty wishes on winning your 4th National Award, for Baahubali. How does it feel?

It feels great and the fact that Baahubali won the Best Film Award and that the special effects played a major role is something that makes me happier.

How challenging was Baahubali compared to Enthiran?

Enthiran had more imaginary shots, but the script of Baahubali gave us a lot more freedom and it was even more challenging. The film had more larger than life sequence, for example, the scene where Rana single-handedly tackles a giant size bull, something that is unlikely to happen in real life. The grand sets, the waterfalls, all these were very challenging and we are glad that it was accepted by the audience too.

Did you get the expected output that you conceptualized before the start of the film?

Rajamouli sir was only 70% convinced with the final output of Baahubali.

What is pulling us behind from competing with the West?

Today regional film audiences are exposed to international cinema as well. They pay the same 120 rupees for a Hollywood film that is made at a budget of 1,000 crores and an Indian film made in less than 100 crores. So people expect the same quality that they witness in a Hollywood film. But slowly we are catching up.

We have directors like Shankar and Rajamouli who could think out of the box and could compete with any Western directors. Creativity wise, I would say we are ahead of the West but they are more process oriented and they have got the budget.

Production houses are very strong in the Western countries. They take more time on the pre-productions and less time for the actual shoot. In most cases the director’s involvement in a film is very limited. The production takes care of all the pre-production and post-production and the director only needs to take care of the shoot portions and not think of anything else. The dependency over a director is very less in the West, whereas in India the director has to take care of everything from casting to budget constraints. That is where Shankar sir is a master. His management skills are top-class.  He is an excellent task master plus he has an unmatchable vision to explore new things.

However, in the case of Baahubali the producers took the burden so that Rajamouli did not break his head with all the management bottlenecks. The producers played an impeccable role in the success of the film. They were very cooperative and always on the field to support Rajamouli. I would rate them among the best producers that I have ever worked with.

About Enthiran 2?

Like how our CG work has gone better from Shivaji to Baahubali, Enthiran 2 will be at a next level. Though there were a lot of films on robotic science, Enthiran had its own charm and unique features. Similarly the second edition will also be international and loved by all.

I don’t have to say about Shankar sir’s vision. Enthiran 2 is a perfectly planned project and Shankar sir knows how he wants the final output of the film to be and we have seen the full film in digital storyboard and it looks very promising.

We took 2.5 years to complete Enthiran and we are planning to complete Enthiran 2 in two years. With almost a year’s work already over, we might still have around 1 year of CG work left.

Thank You sir, hoping to see your visual magic once again in 2.0 very soon! All the very best!

Avinash Pandian

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