Santosh Sivan is riding a wave following his prestigious membership into the American Society of Cinematographers recently.
His long-awaited “Urumi” finally released in Tamil last week in over 200 screens across Tamil Nadu and he has almost completed shooting for the Vijay-starrer “Thuppaaki” for director A.R. Murugadoss.
Many scenes in “Urumi”, a trilingual (Malayalam, Tamil and English) were re-shot to avoid lip-sync problems. The effort has paid off with the film continuing its run into the second week, powered by its high-profile cast of Prithviraj, Prabhu Deva, Genelia and Arya, Vidya Balan and Tabu in special appearances.
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“Urumi” is the valiant story of warriors from the Malabar coast who planned to kill Vasco Da Gama and packs breathtaking martial arts and war choreography, all painstakingly captured by Sivan in mostly natural light in the wildest of outdoors with the modest of budgets and minimal visual effects for an epic of this scale.
“I just want to finish my existing commitments and start work on ‘Ceylon', my pet-project,” says the cinematographer and filmmaker. “Because I did ‘Thuppaaki', all my old friends are asking me why I am not shooting for them,” he laughs.
“Ceylon” is the story of four boys caught in the middle of the war in Sri Lanka. Sivan spent months researching and getting footage for the film which is all set to roll. “I just need to find the right actors,” he says.
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Sivan will soon begin shooting for Priyadarshan's Hindi remake of “Nadodigal” and is currently busy promoting the award-winning Malayalam film “Manjadikuru” directed by Anjali Menon. “Manjadikuru” released in Kerala recently after doing its rounds in the festival circuit. “It's an interesting film that we are trying to release in Chennai as well,” says Sivan.