Vidya Balan
The trailer of his film has already
created a sensation. TOI chats up
with Santosh Sivan...
Internationally-reputed
cinematographer and director
Santosh Sivan’ s Urumi, which is being made in Malayalam, Tamil
and Hindi, is making waves even
before its release. The one-
minute trailer of the film has
become the most viewed and
discussed Indian film on the Internet. Santosh, who is
currently busy with the post-
production work along with his
National Award-winning editor
Sreekar Prasad, talks to Chennai
Times about his film...
Urumi is your costliest film
till date and its promos
have been appreciated.
What’ s the film about?
Urumi is a story that takes place
in the 16th century in the North
Malabar area of Kerala. It is
about four young men who plot
to assassinate the Portuguese
explorer Vasco Da Gama. History books state that Vasco Da Gama
discovered India, visited the
Malabar coast and went back
with a lot of pepper. Our story
tells the real truth — that he was actually an invader who
murdered nearly 400 Muslims
who were on a ship making its
way back from Mecca. A group of
young men in and around
Kozhikode plan to assassinate Vasco and that’ s the plot of the movie.
You are known for your
critically-acclaimed films like
The Terrorist, Tahaan and
Before the Rains. Are you
turning commercial with
Urumi?
(Smiles) I know that I have an
image as a children’ s film maker who also makes serious films in
different genres. With Urumi, I’ m trying out something totally
different from my earlier films.
Yes, it does have popular
commercial cinema ingredients
like big stars, four songs, exotic
locations, superbly- choreographed action scenes
(including never- before-seen
sword fights), romance, human
emotions, patriotism and humour.
I’ d say that Urumi is an entertainer but designed like a
thriller. You have pulled of a major
coup by signing top
Bollywood and Kollywood
actors in one film... Urumi had a big canvas and
required stars. Prithviraj plays
the protagonist in the film and is
also one of the producers of the
film. Prabhu Deva has as much
importance as Prithviraj in the story. Genelia plays a princess
and a Portugese killer; her
character is etched out of a
real-life princess who lived in
Kannur during the 16th century.
She has done some awesome s word fight scenes and is the
romantic pair of Prithvi. Vidya
Balan plays an oracle and there
are other fine actresses like
Tabu and Nithya Menen. Arya
plays a crucial role in the film. And then, there are seasone d
artists like Amol Gupte, Ankur
Sharma and Jagathy. British
actor Alex (of Madrasapattinam
fame) plays Vasco Da Gama. The
film has music by Deepak Dev, who was a keyboard player with
A R Rahman. Kalaripayattu
experts Ulhas and Madhu have
choreographed three of the
songs and all the action scenes. Normally, all your films are
premiered at prestigious
international festivals... Urumi (in Malayalam and Tamil) is
scheduled to release on March
31. A shorter abridged version in
English that tells the story of
the warriors who wanted to kill
Vasco Da Gama will make it to the festivals. It will have a
different story line as the
view point changes.
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