Cinematographer Ramji, who’s currently gearing up for the release of Velaikkaran on December 22nd, talks about the film and working with Sivakarthikeyan for the first time. Praising filmmaker Mohan Raja’s brilliant sense of filmmaking, he says, “Mohan Raja told me one line story of Velaikkaran during Chennai floods. I was abruptly spellbound over the concept and assured that it is going to be a film with huge impact. I would say that Velaikkaran will be an unusual cinema and will turn lights on how the generation of tomorrow’s world should be. I was very surprised over the discipline and hard work of not Mohan Raja alone, but his assistants as well. I would leave the shooting spot by evenings and when i return back the in morning , i would see assistants walking like Zombies. The reason is that Mohan Raja and his assistants stay up at spot discussing scenes till early morning 4 a.m. and come back again by 8 a.m. for shoot.”Also Read: Velaikkaran song Iraiva:The song’s transition from a slow romantic beat to a groovy tune is kickass!

On working with Sivakarthikeyan, Ramji said, “All that I can say is that Siva has never done such a movie before. We were so much concerned about his looks in this film. He goes through 3 different transitions in the movie and we had to accordingly design his looks and visuals as well.”

“Art Muthuraj was so much keen on detailing that surprised me to the core. Usually, we can see lots of Drumstick Trees in slum areas. He never hesitated to plant few drumstick trees for the sake of realistic appeal. He even deposited debris and many wastes alongside the set works of Cooum loaded with huge iron pipes to bring a naturalistic ambience of a slum,” says Ramji.

Sharing his experience in working with producer RD Raja, he said, “His greatness cannot be described in few words for a book can be written on him. So much of his goodness spreads positive vibrations to each and everyone on the set. He never hesitated to delete some scenes that was shot at huge budget claiming that anything inappropriate to the script shouldn’t be forced into a movie for the sake of money spent.”

(Text By Surendhar MK)