Director Radha Mohan is currently making gentle enquiries about K-Pop to his daughter, who is in Class X and is crazy about Korean pop music. This is not for a future project, but just to stay in touch with the current generation.
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“Most of my ADs (assistant directors) are just out of college. I learn a lot from their way of thinking,” says Radha Mohan, who debuted in the Tamil film industry in 2004.
He is still making films, but the platforms have changed. This Friday, his latest comedy-caper Malaysia to Amnesia will release on Zee 5. Starring Vaibhav, Vani Bhojan, Karunakaran and MS Bhaskar, the film revolves around an entrepreneur taking a flight to meet his girl after lying to his wife.
“We knew from the outset that this was going to be an OTT film,” says Radha Mohan, in a telephonic interview, “Usually, after a shot, we look at the monitor thinking about the way it will play out on the big screen. With this film, we kept thinking about how it will look on a mobile screen. We worked on the picture and sound based on this.”
Comedy is one of his strong points, he feels. Fans of his evergreen Mozhi (2007) will remember the Prithviraj-Prakashraj and MS Bhaskar portions fondly. “It [comedy] comes naturally to me,” he says, “But I try to lace it with an emotional touch. I have done that in Malaysia to Amnesia as well. Comedy is all about the timing that the actors bring in... I usually give them a bound script so that they can go through and come up with their own improvisations.”
Also known for his strong female characters in films like Abhiyum Naanum and Mozhi , Radha Mohan believes that it is most important for directors to stay updated. “When digital filmmaking came into vogue in 2010, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon, making Payanam in that format. The minute a director keeps saying, ‘ Antha kaalam maari varuma’ (there is nothing like the past), it signals his downfall. The mantra is to stay updated with what’s in vogue.”
