HAS C SUNDER
LOST HIS MAGIC TOUCH?

Sundar arrived on the Tamil film scene with a bang in 1996. Ullathe Allitha, the Karthik-Rambha starrer, became a mega hit and he followed it up with Rajnikant’s Arunachalam and Sarath Kumar’s Janakiraman. But his recent release, Nam Iruvar Namukku Iruvar with Prabhu Deva, Meena and Maheswari met with a lukewarm response. Is Sundar losing his grip on the box-office? Sundar answers his critics in an exclusive

INTERVIEW
Were you disappointed by the poor audience turn-out for Nam Iruvar...?
I never said all my films would be hits. You cannot safely predict success all the time and I’m pragmatic about it. Tamil filmdom is going through a bad phase, and out of ten releases, only two have been doing well. But my film will not be among those films which are immediately yanked off the theatres. Beyond that, I can’t promise anything.

Producers complain that the ban on TV publicity has been harmful to them. Do you agree?
Well, TV publicity can be both a boon and a curse. When Ullathe Allitha was released, the film was rated a flop after one week, and I was packing my bags to return to Coimbatore. Fortunately, that’s when the songs of the film began playing on TV, and that attracted the crowds to the theatres.

On the other hand, the box-office ratings on TV affects most new releases. The audience prefers to see only the top three films and ignore the rest. This has wiped out many a director and producer.

Your films are getting repetitive, with the same kind of situational comedy, and family song. Your heroine is always called Indu, and Senthil, Goundamani and Manivannan are fixtures of sorts in your films. Comment.
Directors are trapped by the demands of producers. When the family song inspired by Hum Aapke Hain Koun was shown in Ullathe Allitha, most producers kept asking for it. Similarly, every producer keeps insisting on a situational comedy sequence of one kind. Senthil, Goundamani and Manivannan are three artistes whom I rate as excellent performers. They inspire me a great deal, and I also vibe well with them, which is why they are an integral part of my films. As for all my heroines being called Indu, it’s just that I’m very lazy to think up new names. Even for the heroes, I use their real names for the characters.

I’m a producer’s director and I prefer to listen to them. It’s they who invest in the product and they should have the last word in its making. But to some extent, the pace with which I work is also responsible for the repetitiveness in my films. Each of my films has been completed in only six months. I’ve decided to slow down, hereafter. My next film with Parthipan will be only in May.

Are you going to persist with comedies?
No. In fact I’m tired of them. Making a thriller or a mushy tear-jerker is easier than making comedies, which often demand improvisation on the spot. My next film with Parthipan will be a thriller which will have music by Illayaraja, who is also an expert at re-recording.

Many felt that you Rajnikant was wasted in Arunachalam. Trade circles were disappointed by the money it made at the box-office.
Well don’t forget that Arunachalam was released differently from other films, with five shows daily at almost all theatres. So, in ten days, the film grossed what it would have collected in 100 days. This must have created the impression that collections were low, but they weren’t. Rajnikant had a different kind of role in the film. The first half was comical, while the second was conceived with his fans in mind.

Have you any plans for making a Hindi film?
It’s too early for me to think of making a Hindi film. I have to settle down in Tamil films first before I think of migrating to Mumbai. A director is judged by his last hit unlike a hero who can still sign films after 10 flops. I guess it would be better for me to shift to Bollywood after around ten years in South Indian films, like Priyadarshan.