JOIN USSuresh Urs: Working with Mani Ratnam was great
Suresh Urs has edited some of the biggest blockbuster Indian films ever. Mani Ratnam’s ‘Roja’, ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ and ‘Iruvar’ are among his major hits.
He won the National Award for Best Editing for ‘Bombay’, and has also won Karnataka and Tamil Nadu state film awards. He divides his time between Chennai and Bengaluru, working on films in Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. He tells Metrolife his life story.
Childhood memories
Born in Kollegala, near HD Kote, an hour away from Mysuru, Suresh is one of seven children born to K C Chamaraje Urs, a farmer, and Devajammanni, a homemaker.
Suresh recollects his childhood was “not particularly special”. Being the second eldest in the family meant helping with chores, fetching water from the river, washing clothes, cleaning utensils, and taking care of the cattle and the family’s agricultural land.
“In a household of 10, with many more visiting, it took a lot to get through the day so we would help as best as we could,” he says.
He went to a government school that was more like a rundown hut at the entrance of the village. Chores came first but that was no reason to skip school. “We didn’t have to do great at school but we had to be punctual and attentive while we were there,” he says.
He remembers having lost his pencil and asking his grandmother to recommend to his father to get him a new one. “I got scolded before I got one,” he says.
Suresh went to Mysore to pursue his high school education. “I stayed at the Arasu hostel while trying to complete my diploma in electrical engineering. I wasn’t even able to buy the chart that I needed for the circuit drawing in the final exam,” he recalls.
Cousin inspiration
Once, while in Mysore, he saw a group watching a film shooting in progress.
“I went closer and realised my older cousin, Sundarakrishna Urs, was working in it as an assistant director. I remember going to his village for my vacation. Later, whenever he was shooting in Mysore, particularly in Prestige Studios, I would visit him,” he says.
Sundarakrishna Urs later became a much-acclaimed actor, working with almost all the big names in the Kannada film industry. He was the antagonist in Ondanondu Kaladalli, the martial arts film that launched Shankar Nag as hero.
Unable to complete his college studies, Suresh returned home to make a living in agriculture, but by then, his father had sold their land to pay off his debts.
“I left home, and my uncles tracked me down in Mysuru, and asked me to go and work with my cousin, who was then assisting the well-known director Puttanna Kanagal,” he says.
Suresh found a job as assistant director. “My eagerness made some dislike me, and they talked ill about me to my cousin,” Suresh recalls.
Sundarakrishna Urs by then was an actor and dubbing artiste. “He knew only what they told him. One day without any rhyme or reason, he pushed me into the editing room, where I started from scratch without any prior knowledge. But destiny has a funny way,” he says.
Films and editing
Suresh had no clue about the technical terms used in editing. He would often get teased and ridiculed, but was determined to prove people wrong. “While I was still learning things, the chief editor I was working for passed away. A small budget Konkani film he had agreed to edit was offered to me, so I worked on it. I was certain I had messed it up, but somehow I kept getting work and I kept getting better. The technicalities were hard for me, but being a movie buff helped. I looked for the feel and the flow, and the more I concentrated on this, the easier it became to understand the technical aspects,” he says.
Working with legends
Suresh Urs has worked with big directors like Mani Ratnam, T S Nagabharana, Shankar Nag and Girish Karnad, among others.
Suresh feels blessed that he got to work with many greats. He says, “Being a fan helped a lot. The shots and takes don’t necessarily carry the tone and flow of a finished film. I would approach each project thinking how the filmmaker would present his art. That would help me to see the final work just how it should be. My job would be to make the material the best version of itself,” he says.
The filmmakers he worked with have allowed him to edit their masterpieces with little or no guidelines.
“Cinema is art. Filmmaking is a technical endeavour. The maestros are the ones who gave freedom to their artistes and technicians to do their best and not just conform to the script. Every film is different and every filmmaker is unique, but the greatest often bring out the best in you by believing in you,” he adds.
Film editing is just structuring, he reckons. “The brick and mortar are the same for all buildings, yet something different is created every time you build something. What is most important is the vision, and each director has a vision. Sometimes they execute it spot on, in which case I just follow. Sometimes the execution is off, compared to the initial vision. That isn’t a bad thing, we just need to restructure it as best as we can,” he explains.
700 films and more
Since 1977, Suresh has worked on about 700 films, besides many documentaries and television shows. Each medium and presentation is different from each other, he says. “Some films are just about non-stop entertainment, some are emotional roller-coasters, and some are about provoking thought. Documentaries are about conveying all facts concisely, while television is about stories that need time and characters that need to mature and grow alongside the audiences,” he says.
He adds that ‘editing must consider all these factors and also tailor the content in the most unique and creative manner possible’.
Celluloid to digital
Suresh believes that ‘the attitude towards editing and the equipment being used have changed and continue to metamorphose each day’.
Editing methods have evolved. He says, “In the ‘80s, we would physically cut and paste negatives, and wait to see if we had done it right. In the ‘90s, with the non-linear way, we adapted to looking and then doing the cut and paste. In the late 2000’s, digital editing threatened to sweep away many like me.”
The basics of editing are being taught to the masses who do their own TikTok posts, he adds.
Mani Ratnam saw Malgudi Days and called Suresh for Thalapathi
Suresh had worked on ‘Chinna Marumagal’, a Tamil movie starring Sivaji Ganesan. “I got the opportunity to work with Mani Ratnam for the first time in ‘Thalapathi’. He had noticed my work in Shankar Nag’s ‘Malgudi Days’ and gave me this opportunity. We went on to work on ‘Roja’, ‘Thiruda Thiruda’, ‘Bombay’, ‘Iruvar’ and ‘Dil Se..,’ in what was truly the best time of my career,” he says.
Mani Ratnam is extremely humble and his humility comes from his art, says Suresh.
“He will tell you what is on his mind openly and is welcoming of any input. He is the kind of leader who is there through all the struggles and despite being as good as he is, he gets nervous and questions everything just so that he can find and fix anything that we might have missed,” he says.
Current projects
Suresh is currently working on Baraguru Ramachandrappa’s mythological ‘Amruthamathi’, Vijay Prasad’s ‘Thotapuri’ Part 1 and Part 2 and VK Prakash’s ‘Vishnu Priya’ in Kannada.
“I just finished working on a beautiful Malayalam Film ‘Vaangu’ by a debutant director Kavya Prakash,” he says.