Ad filmmakers are finding their space under the sun in tinsel town, language no bar. While the likes of Pradeep Sarkar, Balki, Gauri Shinde, Dibakar Banerjee and Vinil Mathew, to name a few, make waves in Bollywood, Malayalam cinema also has directors like V.K. Prakash, Joy Mathew and Aashiq Abu who reached Mollywood via ad films.
Rathish Ambat is another ad filmmaker who is all set to put on the director’s cap with a film that is set to go on the floors in June. Scripted by actor-writer Murali Gopy, the film will be produced by Dileep and will feature the actor in the lead too.
The associate of filmmakers like Lal Jose, Blessy and Shyamaprasad, Rathish was waiting for the right script to make his debut as the director of a feature film.
Although he and Murali had been talking about a film since the days of Rasikan , with which Murali made his debut as a scriptwriter and actor, both of them became immersed in their careers and could not find the time to pursue their film. But they continued to nurse their dream about a project together. In the meantime, Murali became a successful scenarist ( Ee Adutha Kalathu andLeft Right Left ) and actor ( Bhramaram, Gadhama, Ee Adutha Kalathu, Left Right Left, Kanyaka Talkies… ).
Rathish found himself as an ad filmmaker with the Midas touch with flicks for Josco, Asianet News, Skyline and Malayala Manorama daily. However, he never severed his links with tinsel town and Rathish turned co-producer with Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal . Last year, Rathish had made a film for Kerala Tourism to promote the backwaters of Kerala (The Great Backwaters’ campaign of Kerala Tourism), which fetched the department the silver at the Golden Gate awards at the Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin (ITB-Berlin) – 2015. The award is considered as the tourism Oscars.
Rathish points out that it was a team effort that had three top notch cinematographers working on the project – Hyvönen and Ville Vellend on aerial photography, K.U. Mohanan working on the ground photography and Priya Seth, a leading underwater cinematographer in Bollywood, filming the underwater shots. Ratish, as director, had to put the film together. Shelton Pinheiro, creative director of Stark, the agency that conceptualised the advertisement, came up with a campaign that highlighted the unique geographical positioning of the region.
“It was an interesting challenge. The idea was to introduce aerial shots to complement the tag line of God's Own country with glimpses of the bewitching backwaters of Alappuzha from the skies, as if someone was observing a green symphony from the skies. Moreover, I had to tell a story without making it look like a tale; it had to be a slice of life, one that was as natural as possible, capturing vignettes of the bustling life of Alappuzha and the languid grace of the waterscapes,” says Rathish.
Shot in six days and in difficult weather conditions, the film went viral on the net. “It was conceptualised by Kerala Tourism and Stark, I only directed it,” insists Rathish, unwilling to be seen as hogging the credit for what was essentially excellent team work.
Rathish adds that ad will remain his bread and butter and making his debut as director of a feature film will not spell the end of his stint in the ad world.
