Shaji Karun on Cannes and his first Hindi venture..

May 5th, 2008Related|Filed Under

Shaji Karun, the famous filmmaker from Kerala is a disappointed man these days. The former Chairman of the Kerala State Chalchitra Academy rues that this year there was no official entry from India to the Cannes film festival. And that it has been happening for the past six to seven years.“They have taken films from small places like Singapore, Turkey, Vietnam and Cambodia but not India. It is because despite making 1000 films a year, we cannot produce even one film that matches international standards. They don’t say that openly to us. When I talked to them, they just said that ‘the gates are now closed’. I know what that means, because all my films get an entry there. From among 4000 entries they just take 20 films, and we don’t come remotely close to the top list. What’s the contribution of stars like Shah Rukh Khan to the world cinema? They made Aishwarya Rai represent India because a substantial part of the film festival was funded by L’Oreal and she is its brand ambassador. Do we just need cosmetics to represent us there? Aren’t they laughing at us by doing that? We can’t send good films, so they take a beautiful face from here!”

Shaji, incidentally, is currently working on an interesting project, Suryamukhi. This is his Hindi feature on the last six years of Raja Ravi Varma’s life. It stars Vidya Balan and Madhavan.

On Suryamukhi

 

“In his last years, Varma turned a printer — a businessman rather than an artist. It marked his failure. It is also about his association with wine and women,” he shares. Made with “extensive research”, and against the backwaters of Kerala, the film’s budget is 3.35 crores. The film will go on the floors in November, he adds.

For now, the filmmaker, whose debut film Piravi won the Camera d’ Or Mention d’honneur at the Cannes Film Festival, is busy finishing a feature film in Malayalam called Kutty Sarin. It is about the body of a boatman that remains unidentified. Three men come and talk about him. “It is produced by Reliance,” he says.

There Are 9 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by goodfella on 5 May 2008:

    This is something I’m really looking forward to - not least because it’s Shaji working with Madhavan.

  2. Comment by satyam on 5 May 2008:

    Absolutely!

  3. Comment by chipguy on 5 May 2008:

    Goodfella; Agreed, Suryamukhi sounds fascinating.
    I’m also extremely interested in “Kutty Sranku” (not Sarin) since last I heard, it was supposed to have Mammootty and Meera Jasmine- it would be great to see what Shaji and Mammootty can do together.
    Shaji suddenly seems to have gotten quite productive- it’s been ages since Vaanaprastham.

  4. Comment by rockstar on 5 May 2008:

    welcome to the forum rhapsody

  5. Comment by rhapsody on 5 May 2008:

    Thanks Rockstar!

  6. Comment by rks on 5 May 2008:

    Welcome to the forum rhapsody.

  7. Comment by goodfella on 5 May 2008:

    Chipguy - yeah Vaanaprastham was probably the last true Indian arthouse masterwork I’ve seen. Some noble works from Adoor and Dasgupta have come and gone, but none with the lasting impact of that wonderful film.

    Re: “KS” - I heard Mammootty was in it as well - though that bit of news was also fairly old. I hope he hasn’t since moved on…

  8. Comment by chipguy on 5 May 2008:

    Yeah, I hope Mammootty’s still doing it. I read an article a couple of months ago that laid out his shooting plans for 08 and Kutty Sranku was on it…

  9. Comment by goodfella on 5 May 2008:

    I actually recall reading years ago that Mammootty was doing a movie with Shaji in which he was playing a corpse.

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