‘Scorsese films inspired my biopic’
By: Haricharan
Prasanna’s On a Quest traces the life ofSwami Chinmayananda
The last person you’d expect to make a biopic on Swami Chinmaya nanda, a Hindu spiritual leader who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission, is filmmaker R S Prasanna, whose last outing was Tamil adult comedyKalyana Samayal Saadham (KSS), which revolved around a character suffering from erectile dysfunction ahead of his marriage.
When you remind him about it, he requests you to take a look at Martin Scorsese’s films such as The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun. “Here was a director who was not known for his spiritual leanings, yet he made these two wonderful films. That influenced me a lot and in a way I saw these two films in this project,” Prasanna told Mirror. The other reason being his dream to make a period film of international standard. And through this project, he hopes to make people understand that spirituality and religion are not the same.
The biopic, On A Quest, traces the life of Chinmayananda from his childhood till he attained samadhi. National award-winning Thota Tharani plays the older version of Chinmayananda, while Sandeep, a real-life monk, plays his younger version.
“When you do a biopic of a character that has lived in the recent memory, it’s difficult to find someone who can act as well as physically resemble that person. When we were discussing this with my team, my costume designer Preethi, who worked as an assistant to Thota Tharani, suggested his name,” he said. When Prasanna met Tharani, the latter agreed to act for free. “You will see Sandeep on screen till the point Swamiji was 40 years old and after that, we have used Tharani sir,” he added. It wasn’t an easy film to make, admits Prasanna, though the enriching experience of spending over a month with sanyasis on sets was priceless. “For people of Chinmaya Mission, it is like watching their Rajinikanth. If you were to make a movie on Rajinikanth, you can’t afford to get it wrong. The fans will kill you.”
One of the biggest influences on the making of the film was Kamal Haasan’s Hey Ram, which Prasanna says was “years ahead of its time”. “During the making of On A Quest, I was devouring Kamal’s masterpiece along with my film crew. Each and every frame was a masterclass on making a period film, and many times we forgot that we had a film to make of our own and got into gushing love and admiration at the detailing and intelligence of the film,” he said. Kamal was one of the few actors who heaped praised on KSS, which gave him sleepless nights. “Kamal Haasan was the Drona to this Eklavya as I went through school, trying to balance my grades with my growing obsession with films,” he revealed.
Prasanna is currently busy screening shows of his film. He plans to release the biopic in phases across the world as it won’t have a commercial theatrical release. Over 75 shows have already been screened across the country and there is increasing demand from many places. He also plans to take it to film festivals across the globe and see if can release it on Netflix too. Very soon, he will also start working on the Hindi remake of Kalyana Samayal Saadham with a top star.
“The remake plan is definitely on, but it’s too early to talk about casting. I’m at present adapting the script to Bollywood. We will go on floors soon,” he said. C V Kumar, the path-breaking producer of films such as Pizza, Pizza 2 and Soodhu Kavvum, will produce the Hindi remake.
The project will mark the Bollywood debut of Prasanna and Kumar.
Prasanna’s On a Quest traces the life of
The last person you’d expect to make a biopic on Swami Chinmaya nanda, a Hindu spiritual leader who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission, is filmmaker R S Prasanna, whose last outing was Tamil adult comedy
When you remind him about it, he requests you to take a look at Martin Scorsese’s films such as The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun. “Here was a director who was not known for his spiritual leanings, yet he made these two wonderful films. That influenced me a lot and in a way I saw these two films in this project,” Prasanna told Mirror. The other reason being his dream to make a period film of international standard. And through this project, he hopes to make people understand that spirituality and religion are not the same.
The biopic, On A Quest, traces the life of Chinmayananda from his childhood till he attained samadhi. National award-winning Thota Tharani plays the older version of Chinmayananda, while Sandeep, a real-life monk, plays his younger version.
“When you do a biopic of a character that has lived in the recent memory, it’s difficult to find someone who can act as well as physically resemble that person. When we were discussing this with my team, my costume designer Preethi, who worked as an assistant to Thota Tharani, suggested his name,” he said. When Prasanna met Tharani, the latter agreed to act for free. “You will see Sandeep on screen till the point Swamiji was 40 years old and after that, we have used Tharani sir,” he added. It wasn’t an easy film to make, admits Prasanna, though the enriching experience of spending over a month with sanyasis on sets was priceless. “For people of Chinmaya Mission, it is like watching their Rajinikanth. If you were to make a movie on Rajinikanth, you can’t afford to get it wrong. The fans will kill you.”
Prasanna, a student of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, passed out in 2000, feels he was destined to do the film. “I was returning from the post-production work of KSS, and I stayed in Hong Kong for a day. There, I walked in to Chinmaya Mission, which was right next door to my hotel,” says Prasanna.
One of the biggest influences on the making of the film was Kamal Haasan’s Hey Ram, which Prasanna says was “years ahead of its time”. “During the making of On A Quest, I was devouring Kamal’s masterpiece along with my film crew. Each and every frame was a masterclass on making a period film, and many times we forgot that we had a film to make of our own and got into gushing love and admiration at the detailing and intelligence of the film,” he said. Kamal was one of the few actors who heaped praised on KSS, which gave him sleepless nights. “Kamal Haasan was the Drona to this Eklavya as I went through school, trying to balance my grades with my growing obsession with films,” he revealed.
Prasanna is currently busy screening shows of his film. He plans to release the biopic in phases across the world as it won’t have a commercial theatrical release. Over 75 shows have already been screened across the country and there is increasing demand from many places. He also plans to take it to film festivals across the globe and see if can release it on Netflix too. Very soon, he will also start working on the Hindi remake of Kalyana Samayal Saadham with a top star.
“The remake plan is definitely on, but it’s too early to talk about casting. I’m at present adapting the script to Bollywood. We will go on floors soon,” he said. C V Kumar, the path-breaking producer of films such as Pizza, Pizza 2 and Soodhu Kavvum, will produce the Hindi remake.
The project will mark the Bollywood debut of Prasanna and Kumar.
