Filmmaker Gautham Vasudev Menon speaks during a masterclass on 'The Art of Cinema' at the Bengaluru International Film Festival on Wednesday.
Credit: DH Photo/Pushkar V
Bengaluru: Cinephiles and fans of the popular Tamil director Gautham Vasudev Menon lined up at Orion mall here to catch a masterclass titled 'The Art of Cinema. It was moderated by film critic Shubra Gupta.
Menon is known for directing action dramas, thrillers and romantic films. His romantic films Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, Vaaranam Aayiram and Minnale were loved and enjoyed by the audiences.
Big stars don’t want to do romantic films anymore, he said. “I set up a meeting with big stars for a movie and the minute they hear it’s a love story, they say let’s meet 10 days later and they don’t meet at all,” he shared. He said he has spoken to actors across industries including Kannada but they refuse to do romantic films.
Menon has also been criticised for glorifying stalking in his films. When asked if he would make Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa differently today, he replied, “If you take any popular film or story from the past and scrutinise it, beyond what it's meant to be, what was meant to be at that time, art itself will become obsolete.” He also added that he made films based on his own experiences.”
Speaking about theatres witnessing low audience turnout, he quoted Sean Baker’s recent Oscar speech about how we fell in love with movies because we watched them in theatres. “We are now imploring and begging the audience to come to the theatres to watch films. If they just come and watch films at theatres, the scenario would be different. I am hoping the whole digital idea is temporary and it will come back to theatrical dependency completely,” he said.
Menon was recently caught up in a controversy when in an interview he said anticaste films set in the 80s and 90s are not relevant anymore. When asked about that, he said:
“What I meant is that if you keep pointing out the rift. It continues to create the divide. Then people fall on two sides automatically. And I only said that these are the only kind of stories that are coming out now. I want to see some other stories also. And I didn't say caste doesn't exist or the differences don't exist.”