Madurai boy Prasath Ramar has had many avatars; he worked in a bank and dabbled in human resources before joining childhood friend Karthik Subbaraj’s team. For a long time, Prasath’s calling card used to be that he assisted Karthik. He worked on Pizza, and became great friends with the cast and crew. One day, composer Santhosh Narayanan played snatches of Lucia for Prasath, in his studio. Intrigued, he went back and watched the film, and was impressed with the director’s vision.
Prasath did not know then that he would get to direct the Tamil remake of the film as his first independent project. With Siddharth-starrer Enakkul Oruvan hitting screens today, Prasath is a bundle of nerves.
“When the chance to direct the remake came up, I grabbed it. I loved Lucia; it was inspirational, crowd-funded and had great vision. With Enakkul Oruvan, I’ve retained the same storyline, but changed the treatment. In Tamil, the movie is an emotional love story. It is a film about dreams and raises intellectual questions, but they are answered through the love story,” he says.
Prasath smiles thinking about the film shoot. “It was a dream set. There was no pressure, despite the fact that I was a newcomer handling senior performers,” he says. It took him five years to get a break in the field, and the director says that he prefers to look at the period as one of learning rather than struggle. “It allowed me to absorb whatever life gave me. It helped that I was surrounded by well-wishers such as Manigandan (Kaaka Muttai), Simhaa, Vijay Sethupathi and Alphonse (Neram).”
The film, says Prasath, takes shape like an experience. “I’ve kept the screenplay very simple. It is not difficult to perceive what is happening on screen. But, it will be very novel,” he assures.
Prasath is already working on other scripts. “I want to make well thought-out creations. My idols are Sridhar, Mani Ratnam, Mahendran and Balu Mahendra… I want to make films that linger in people’s minds.”
