Mani Ratnam shares interesting fact about 'Chaiyya Chaiyaa' song

Roja Bombay Iruvar Yuva Guru Dil Se and Alai Payuthey amongst several other works of his have defined the landscape of modern Indian cinema No other Indian filmmaker has been able to achieve the same feat as the Maestro Mani Ratnam so far His body of work boasts of six National Film Awards and a Padma ShriAs the filmmaker is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming epic Ponniyin Selvan I he spoke with IANS about his close knit creative team working with the Badshah of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se and nurturing new talentA true artiste is often either shrouded by simplicity of life or the complexities of conflicts With Mani Ratnam its the former The softness in his voice and the humility in his demeanour cascade into the riveting stories that he conjures for celluloidLike most of his films film editor A Sreekar Prasad has stitched Ponniyin Selvan I as well Ratnam has always worked with a close knit creative team something that manifests itself in his collaboration with Rahman Prasad and most of his techniciansFurnishing the reason behind working with a preferable set of people the filmmaker says It is a complementary effect with A Sreekar Prasad he adds a lot more to my vision as a storyteller From his edition Im able to take my stories one step forward and its more or less the same with every technicianHe believes in giving space to his collaborators and inviting their inputs for the larger good of the story Its not that I want to enforce my creative thoughts on the people whom I work with Filmmaking is a collaborative art form and a story wont reach its true potential unless you give room to every artist to come up with their own ideas and add value to it There are some collaborators with whom you hit a common wavelengthContinuing he cascades into working with newer talents like Ram Gopal Varma Anurag Kashyap and AR Rahman back then in an era gone byHe says Ramu Anurag and Rahman are such people with whom I had a great time working with whenever we have collaborated on something Though I didnt bring in any of these talents into the industry they were working and winning praise for their work before I worked with them but theyre so brilliant in their line of work that you look forward to more from them and they push you to outdo yourselfHe particularly praises RGV for his astute vision and the knack of experimentation as a filmmaker Ramu for instance his first film Shiva I think its one of the best films that I saw from a first time director similarly with Anurag and Rahman both of whom the world knows aboutAs for Rahman the best part about working with him is that he wont take the next step unless he is convinced about his creation As Mani Ratnam shares The most satisfying aspect of working with Rahman is that he doesnt settle very easilyRatnam is the one who brought Rahman to the mainstream with his film Roja the films OST turned out to be a runaway success and the rest is historyWhen you work with Rahman its not just you as a director that needs to be convinced Rahman needs to be equally convinced about how the track composed by him would reflect on the screen on the characters or in the overall flow of the narrative The common search for the right sound texture tonal quality and the warmth is something I find really special the director addsOne such instance where his collaboration with Rahman has resulted in something iconic is Chaiyya Chaiyya from the Shah Rukh Khanstarrer Dil Se Ask him how did he go about the song given there are far too many legends attached to the song from himself SRK Rahman Gulzar Farah Khan choreographer Sukhwinder cinematographer Santosh Sivan and a diva like Malaika and he says I dont knowAfter saying that its an accidental marvel Ratnam adds We just did what we were supposed to in a limited span of time Of course the magic started with Rahman composing that melody but on set there were several challenges that we were battling againstShedding light pun intended on the logistical challenges he adds We were losing the light and facing logistical challenges as narrow gauge was too small to accommodate cameras and broad gauge trains were too fast from the point of view of the crews safety We didnt get time to ponder over creative line of thoughtBut what really stands out is SRKs reluctance to comply with safety norms purely because he wanted to be left free to explore the song and the physical space of the train On top of that Shah Rukh Khan was really adamant on not wearing the safety harness because he wanted to cover the entire space of the coaches for his performance the director addsWhile he was able to convince everyone onboard to wear the harness SRK didnt budge till the end You can see him jumping around the coaches performing you can literally see him enjoying the song as he performedConsidering the safety and time more than anything we wanted to get the shoot off our chest as quickly as possible he mentionsNot many people know but he is an alumnus of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai as he has done his Master of Business Administration MBA in finance from the institution The filmmaker feels no knowledge goes to waste what he studied in the Bschool still comes handy to himAny education gives you a rational approach to your line of work My study of management comes in handy when I work with large teams like for Ponniyin Selvan I because at the end of the day people management forms a big part of filmmaking he concludesPonniyin Selvan I which stars an ensemble cast of Vikram Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Jayam Ravi Karthi Trisha Aishwarya Lekshmi Sobhita Dhulipala Prabhu R Sarathkumar Vikram Prabhu Jayaram Prakash Raj Rahman and R Parthiban will debut in cinemas on September 30Also ReadShah Rukh Khan breaks the internet with his new look for lsquoPathaanrsquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness 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