Director Thamiz on seeking Pa Ranjith’s help for ‘Seththuman’

When you’re a struggling filmmaker trying to make his debut, you always come across people who make false hopes and hollow promises. Somehow you stick to those promises in the hope that things will change for the better. The situation is no different in the case of director Thammiz as well. With over a decade as an assistant and associate director, Thamiz has worked in films such as Pattalam And biryani, He had written some commercial scripts and was trying to make them. “I was trying to use Venkata Prabhu [director of Biryani] as a card but that was not helpful. Even the films I tried to pursue didn’t feel like I would like to do anything. That’s when I decided to make a film of my choice,” says Thamiz, whose directorial debut Seththuman Releasing this Friday on SonyLIV.

As it was a long wait of five years, Thamiz decided to quit films at a time and started working later. Seththuman With a budget of ₹6 lakh – “I realized that no producer would support my film. So I went ahead with what I had.”

When filming began, he realized that he could not even meet the rental cost of camera equipment. Thamiz sought the help of filmmaker Pa Ranjith, who after reading the script decided to produce the film. “Since he himself is a director and is politically aware, he understood what my film was about,” he says.

With his roots in Erode, Thamiz moved to Chennai after graduation. It was only while trying to make it as a director that he realized the importance of literature. it seems fitting for him now Seththuman Based on the short story by Tamil writer Perumal Murugan Varugarik, The film explores the relationship of a grandfather and his grandson, while also taking a sharp look at the politics of caste and flesh.

Thamiz says it was not politics that caught his attention. What attracted him was the human spirit, “the last line”. Varugarik bothered me a lot. that Different what inspired me to make sethuman,” he added. The film was well received at various film festivals including the International Film Festival of Kerala and the Chennai International Film Festival, where it won an award.

Growing up in his hometown, Thamiz admitted to being an average cinephile, enjoying commercial films of Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Vijayakanth. But it was only then that he started following Balu Mahendra’s television serial embroidery neramo That he got serious about films. “I am a fan of directors CV Sridhar and Balu Mahendra. Even though he made commercial films, they were different from normal films and had an aesthetic quality,” he says, adding, “He broke many formulae and stereotypes. Similarly, I also wanted to make my films as realistic as possible.”