- A completely home-grown Tamil film
When we talk about Sri Lankan film, Tamil films often tend to be overlooked for many reasons, from the Tamil demographic in Sri being smaller than for Sinhala films, and also because the Sri Lankan Tamil film industry, sadly, pales in comparison to the Indian Tamil film industry.
This Christmas marks the release of an entirely independent home-gown feature-length Sri Lankan Tamil film, “Puththi Kedda Manitharellam” (All the stupid people), directed by Raj Sivarajan.
Brunch chatted with Sivarajan ahead of the release of Puththi Kedda Manitharellam to learn more about the film and about the challenges of being an independent Tamil filmmaker in Sri Lanka.
Getting into film
Sivarajan was always interested in film, going on to study visual communication at SRM University Chennai and returning to Sri Lanka to make short films, working as an editor, cameraman, assistant director, and director.
Having made more than 15 short films to date, Puththi Kedda Manitharellam marks Sivarajan’s first feature film.
As a director of short films, Sivarajan’s work is acclaimed. His short films “The Balance”, “Change”, “Ini Oru Vithi Seivom”, and “Unlimited” have all won awards at various editions of the Women’s Media Collective Short Film Competition, and another of his short films, “Serukkulam” won third place at the National Short Film Competition in 2017.
Since 2013, Sivarajan has worked with a friend of his, Matheesan Thanabalasingam, on a Facebook page/media company of sorts; Poovan Media, forming a small team of film creatives who frequently band together to work on projects like short films and music videos. Poovan Media gave way to a small film production company – Blackboard International – and it is through Blackboard International that Sivarajan is releasing Puththi Kedda Manitharellam.
Speaking about the team behind Puththi Kedda Manitharellam, Sivarajan explained that the team was exclusively from and around Jaffna with the exception of the film’s colourist, who hailed from Colombo.
Some of the key members behind the film include Sivarajan, people Sivarajan has worked with before through Poovan Media or Blackboard International, Matheesan Thanabalasingam as Music Director, Thirugnanam Tharmalingam as Director of Photography, Arun Yogathasan as Editor, and Nesakumar Saravanan as Art Director.
Puththi Kedda Manitharellam
Without giving away spoilers, Sivarajan shared that Puththi Kedda Manitharellam is a script based on several real-life incidents that have taken place during Sivarajan’s career. One incident, for example, is going on a location shoot for a music video and realising he’d left some important materials behind. Sivarajan also shared that initially, the script was based on that one incident and what would have happened if they hadn’t forgotten those materials on that particular shoot. Since then, the script was developed to include other incidents from his and his teammates’ years on the job to create one full story.
Puththi Kedda Manitharellam goes behind the lives of a group of filmmakers, exploring university life, a love marriage, and other changes in the group’s lives.
Sivarajan shared that, to his knowledge, Puththi Kedda Manitharellam is the first feature film of its kind to be made with a film cast and crew that is based fully in Jaffna, with the exception of one team member. It is also the first time this crew has worked on a feature-length film, with all the crew’s past experiences having to do with short films.
With this in mind, we asked Sivarajan what it was like making the shift from shooting short films to feature films, and he shared that, for him, the biggest change between the two film formats was planning, saying that with short films, there isn’t as much thought and care put into pre-planning, because the nature of short films is quite instinctive and reactive based on the resources and artists available, and they also tend to deal with simple narratives.
A feature-length film, on the other hand, requires a lot of planning and forethought, as well rehearsals with cast and crew all having to be really well-planned out. Sivarajan has worked with other directors on feature-length films, so he knew the kind of planning that had to go into it and was able to plan it out easily.
Planning well doesn’t mean there won’t be hiccups, however, and Sivarajan explained one such hiccup had to do with costuming for a reshoot. While the actors had been asked to hold on to their costumes in case of a reshoot, there came a point in production where a reshoot had to be done, but the actor in question no longer had the same t-shirt he wore during the first take. The team scoured Jaffna in hopes of finding another t-shirt that could be worn for the reshoot, but were unsuccessful.
In the end, Sivarajan shared, he and the team had to be creative, and the actor wore a similar t-shirt, with the production team using careful camera angles and positioning to make sure the difference in t-shirts wasn’t captured in film in the end.
Puththi Kedda Manitharellam is set to be released on the weekend of 24, 25, 26 December at cinemas in Jaffna with screening in other parts of the North like Vavuniya, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa planned for the following week. Following this release in the North, Sivarajan and his team hope to show the film in other parts of the country like Colombo.
The biggest challenge of releasing the film on a large scale is a lack of demand for Tamil films in Sri Lanka, Sivarajan explained, saying that while the South Indian Tamil film industry (which dominates the Sri Lankan Tamil film market) releases a couple of hundred films a year, Sri Lankan Tamil filmmakers only release maybe one or two Sri Lankan Tamil films a year and these are independent films which make normal distribution channels and fees financially unsustainable.
Sivarajan and his team are promoting Puththi Kedda Manitharellam entirely on their own, using their channels to do so. The trailer for the film was scheduled for release on 3 December via the Blackboard International YouTube channel, and will be followed by the release of the film from 24 December.
However, Sivarajan stressed, the release date of the film is still tentative because he and his team have no way of knowing if they will be ousted from the theatres and have their release date rescheduled by the cinemas should they receive a South Indian Tamil film and be asked to play it that same weekend. The cinema will always choose the big South Indian films over the local independent films because those South Indian films are guaranteed to draw crowds and make a profit.
The Sri Lankan Tamil film industry vs. the Indian Tamil film industry
Addressing the differences between the Sri Lankan Tamil film industry and the (South) Indian Tamil film industry, Sivarajan shared that the South Indian industry definitely dwarfs the local one, especially in terms of output. Moreover, the frequency of films from South India makes Sri Lankan audiences become addicted to the films and that form of storytelling, making it harder for Sri Lankan films to make a mark. This is compounded by the fact that when a good Sri Lankan film is released, so much time passes before another one can be released that the audience has forgotten what they liked about the previous film because they’ve been inundated by Indian films in the meantime.
A huge barrier for the Sri Lankan Tamil film industry is its size and resources, with Sivarajan sharing that he knows several Sri Lankan Tamil filmmakers who have been making only short films for more than 10 or 12 years because short films require so much less investment. You don’t need a producer or investor with lots of money for a short film. Feature films, however, are different and require lots of investment. Even Puththi Kedda Manitharellam was entirely self-funded by Sivarajan and other members of his team and crew.
While noting that not all Sri Lankan-made Tamil films are good, Sivarajan urged for more investment in the Sri Lankan Tamil film industry, because this is the only way to grow the industry, both in size and quality.
Sivarajan also urged audiences, both within Sri Lanka and abroad, to help contribute to the success of Sri Lankan Tamil films, because the audience holds the power to help make a movie succeed. However, this also tied back to quantity, with Sivarajan noting that if the Sri Lankan Tamil film industry was able to make, say, 10 to 15 movies a year, they would automatically be able to capture audiences in and out of Sri Lanka regardless of language.
Puththi Kedda Manitharellam is one such film, with Sivarajan sharing that while the film has been made to appeal to the Sri Lankan Tamil audience first, it has nevertheless been designed to connect with all audiences despite language and age.
Looking back on having been able to make his first feature film, Sivarajan said that Puththi Kedda Manitharellam has been his most challenging project to date, but also said he always feels this way about his current or most recent project, adding that if you don’t feel your current project is your most challenging yet, maybe it’s not the right project.
The trailer for Puththi Kedda Manitharellam is now available for viewing on the Blackboard International YouTube channel.
