Koozhangal director PS Vinothraj on integrating climate change concerns in stories, and the language debate

A child labourer in a DVD shop in Chennai, to being introduced to people from the Tamil film industry, and finally an Oscar recognition after his film Koozhangal  (internationally translated as Pebbles) became India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, PS Vinothraj’s journey is an inspiration for many. The filmmaker, who has earned a global reputation with his sheer hard work, takes references from his real-life incidents to bring stories that connect well with the audience. Pebbles is one such story that draws inspiration from the 32-year-old’s family’s battle with poverty and his sister’s experience of marital abuse. The Tamil language film that is looking for an OTT release in days to come, not only tells the story of an alcoholic father and his young son but also how they walk through a barren, unforgiving landscape in his home state of Tamil Nadu thereby putting the focus on the environment too. We spoke to the filmmaker about the importance of integrating the growing concerns about climate change in the stories, if he is bringing Koozhangal into the Hindi language, life after Oscar glory, and the growing world of Pan India films. He answered in Tamil, which was translated into English by filmmaker Blesso Royston in this telephonic conversation. Excerpts from the interview How important is it for the filmmakers to focus on the environment as a story theme? The environment is a term that also involves land, humans, or even caste and how they are treated. What I see in this environment, I make a film on that so that it helps in creating a change. As a filmmaker, it’s my responsibility to make a good environment movie and I will show how people live there and what changes are needed so I expect that someday, change will be seen. Any film on the environment that left a lasting impact on him? Recently there was a movie in Tamil titled Kadaisi Vivasayi  which means the last farmer. It was a moving drama featuring Vijay Sethupathi. The film was directed by well-known M Manikandan and delivers a social message on the struggles of village farmers and the need for natural farming. I think the movie has created a huge impact and depicts the true reality of current farmers in a particular village. Another film is Taramani ( a 2017 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Ram). The movie shows beautifully human characters and nature, for example how people are getting developed in cities and Ram has beautifully shown the environmental growth in human character. How has life changed after Oscar’s recognition? I didn’t make this film to get an Oscar. I made this without any ambition because I attempted to show a reality and I am glad that it has received so much love. With that comes a lot more responsibility and I am getting into celebrity mode so that’s the only change for me. [caption id=“attachment_10183681” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Still from Koozhangal[/caption] But is getting into a celebrity mode bringing added pressure? Yes, people have started expecting more but that has not changed how I work. I don’t want to take any pressure because that will shift my thought process and I will start working to get an Oscar. In that, I may lose some content. I am not taking pressure and I will follow the same step that I have followed while making Pebbles. I will work in the same manner and if that movie will also get recognised, we will talk again. What do you have to say about the emergence of Pan India films in this digital age? This has been a debate for a very long time and I think that, If we try to engage the audience then the parallel business would also happen. Just focusing on entertaining the audience will not help in reaching your goal, you have to engage them too with your story. Whether it is a sci-fi movie or cult movie, if you engage then definitely the audience would support those movies. Kannada being the small film industry has created a huge movie called KGF recently. So, no one creates, writes, or makes a movie for pan India, it’s just that if your story is good that movie becomes a pan India movie.

I think commercial and cult movies can travel together if you know how to engage the audience.

Any plans to dub or remake Koozhangal in Hindi? We can do that with the discussion of the producer. Having said that, this movie got recognized in different countries because of the storyline. Domestic violence is common all over the world and that’s why people connect well with it. Would you like to talk about the Hindi- south Indian debate that is going on and if these language barrier discussions are affecting the Industry overall? Languages and culture are always the barriers in the Indian film industry because here we have too many languages and too many cultures. However, Movies are a visual medium and good quality movies never have that barrier. For example, the movie Sairat was so hit that even in North India, people started watching it with subtitles. The same happened with the Malayalam film Premam. So like I said before, if the audience is engaged with content then there won’t be any barrier. There might be some people in the film industry who want to focus on the language but there is still a good audience who appreciates good content and they take those content to the place they belong to. Your next project? I am currently working on a project that is once again based on a true incident that happened in Madurai. I always want to show the realities in my film and that’s the idea with this one too. It’s currently in the pre-production process.

Nivedita Sharma’s work experience includes covering fashion weeks in Milan, Pakistan, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Dubai, and award functions like IIFA, and TOIFA.  Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .