Sivabalan Muthukumar interview: On Kavin’s ‘Bloody Beggar’ and the quest to make a ‘correct’ film

Sivabalan Muthukumar; with Kavin on the sets of ‘Bloody Beggar’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Sivabalan Muthukumar wants to say and do everything the ‘correct’ way. You ask the debutant director the question cinephiles often dread — of the films that best define the film lover in them — and he struggles to settle with a finite number of titles. His list stretches from Life Is Beautiful and Gnana Oli to Roman Holiday and Bharatha Vilas, but he doesn’t seem quite satisfied with his response. Sivabalan wishes to speak about himself, his influences, and his journey into films in the most honest way possible. And you also see this quest for perfection when he talks about making his debut film, Bloody Beggar, which is set to release on Deepavali.

Headlined by Kavin, the film is produced by director Nelson Dilipkumar, who Sivabalan assisted for over a decade.

Excerpts

You have had quite a long journey with your Nelson. Can you share a bit about what it taught you?

Joining Nelson sir was accidental; I wanted to make a film and thought I knew everything about films. A cinematographer I worked with for an advertisement advised me to join Nelson sir as an AD. But I soon realised that I had a lot to learn. The way Nelson sir saw commercial cinema was eye-opening. Even back then his ideas were quite wacky and he knew how to connect with the audience. But watching someone so talented wait so long for his break felt disheartening. That is why when he got a break in 2017 with Kolamaavu Kokila, it was like a huge boost of confidence for all of us.

What about ‘Bloody Beggar’ gave you the confidence that it would connect well with the current generation of audiences? 

I tried to pitch this story many times but got turned down. At one point, after many such attempts, I started analysing how I could do it right. With every rejection, you learn to objectively look at why the script wasn’t selected by the producer. I kept reworking and I wanted to do this film somehow because I believed that it would give a fresh experience to the audiences.

We coined the term commercial cinema because these films weren’t restricted to a genre. In Tamil, commercial cinema took an all-new path in the early 2010s, thanks to filmmakers like Nalan Kumarasamy, Pa Ranjith and Karthik Subbaraj. Bloody Beggar stemmed from my wish to do one such experiment in commercial cinema as it isn’t restricted to one specific genre.

Sivabalan Muthukumar on the sets of ‘Bloody Beggar’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Given that Nelson is an established director and you worked as an Assistant Director under him, how did you establish creative boundaries with him?

Nelson sir is someone who, when it comes to cinema, wouldn’t do favours out of friendship. Since a film will reach a wide audience, he values the reputation he’s built in the industry. So he is particular about the quality of the film. When I first narrated the script to him, I only wanted to get his opinion, and maybe, put me in touch with a producer. After listening to the story, he understood that translating this to screen needed a good production team with good story sense. That’s why he chose to produce it himself. Once we locked the hero and the shooting schedules, he let me do my own thing.

How did you come up with the idea of writing a story with a beggar as a protagonist?

I used to have a problem building a story around one single protagonist. I used to write a story from multiple perspectives but to mount a project, you need to center it around one protagonist. Moreover, my stories require big budgets and you need a hero to secure such budgets. So I wanted to write an unusual protagonist, someone who is least likely to be a protagonist, and that’s how I arrived at the idea of writing a crooked beggar as the lead character.

A still from ‘Bloody Beggar’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Did you ever wonder if writing such a crooked beggar, who fakes disability for alms, would attract criticism?

Definitely, because there are so many of them who are genuinely struggling. I wondered if writing such a character would influence audiences differently; that is if they start suspecting beggars to be faking their disability. But then, when you think about it on a deeper level, we as humans are so accustomed to this topic that even when you see a beggar with a disability, you would immediately suspect if they are faking it. That normalised thought process made me write such a character in the first place. Further, this film is only about what this specific character does; You will see several others around him who would brave through all their difficulties to earn an honest living.

Kavin and Sivabalan Muthukumar on the sets of ‘Bloody Beggar’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Why did you cast Kavin for the lead role?

I didn’t want to go for the usual names you would come up with when you think of the best performers in Tamil cinema who could pull off a role like this. I wanted fresh casting that would allow the actor to explore a new side of himself. For some reason, I kept thinking about Kavin but was hesitant initially because people might think I was choosing him because I knew him personally. But I kept going back to him as I believe this is a character straight out of a silent film — it has a cartoonish body language — which is a quality I knew I could get out of Kavin.

What sort of a filmmaker do you wish to be in the future?

I want to see how the audiences receive Bloody Beggar, and only through that reception, I would be able to judge if what I believe about filmmaking is right. I need to get that clarity. That will decide the kind of films I make next. I just want to make ‘correct’ films.

When I speak about making a ‘correct’ film, it isn’t about translating everything I envision to the screen as it is. I just want the efforts we put in to get translated onto the screen. This, again, may not be the case always, but I want my efforts to be genuine. That’s what making a correct film is all about.

Bloody Beggar releases in theatres on October 31