Sruti Harihara Subramanian, a Chennai-based filmmaker was in town recently for a screening of her 2016 national-award-winning film, A Far Afternoon – a painted saga by Krishen Khanna followed by a talk at Kunst Forum, Goethe Zentrum. The documentary captured the travails of the artist before and after he sets out to paint, what works on his mind and what doesn’t.
A former Miss Chennai, Sruti had also acted in television soaps, assisting filmmakers Revathi, Vikram Kumar and Vishnu Vardhan. Excerpts from her chat with MetroPlus .
What difference did the award make to your life?
The award meant better visibility; it gave me more confidence. My core group started taking me more seriously. It gave one the assurance that I was a bankable filmmaker; for my debut film that was special.
I am now more conscious than even before, unlike the first offer when I just wanted to give it a good shot no matter what.
On your approach towards art for making the documentary.
When the project came to me, I was nervous. I had studied art in school but I am not an art connoisseur; it was only the second or third time I was hearing about this 90-year-old artiste, Krishen Khanna.
The research was a challenge for my entire team, even at the editing stages. It was still a learning process; his creative strokes had an influence on how I approached my work as well.
After a stint in commercial cinema, what were the challenges in the docu format?
I took up the offer like any corporate film I had done earlier, it was only later that I realised the canvas was bigger. Fiction and documentary are two different languages. Where to start and how to approach a docu was a question mark, as there was no bound script governing this. You never know how your day is going to turn out, you have a different relationship with your cameraman, unlearning and relearning was the trick.
The departure from conventional voice-over format was one such instance. Documentaries needn’t always be about mega-social issues, it can be fun too.
On your interest in paticipating in mainstream cinema.
I may have taken to documentaries lately but I came into the industry hoping to make commercial films. I have a lot of scripts to be executed, where I can go all out to use my creative juices.
Ideally, I would love to balance both my documentary and commercial assignments. Like, right now, I am working on an interesting music video where I met a lot of people across the country.
You’d worked in ‘Panjaa’ before. Does Telugu cinema figure in your plans?
But for the fact that it was a Telugu film, Panjaa had a crew that knew Tamil in and out.
The only Telugu I know is because of Panjaa . I definitely want to make a mark here, I have a fantasy-genre script that should suit the industry’s sensibilities. Of course, working with Pawan Kalyan and the producers of Baahubali are something I would rave about for the rest of my life.
You’ve acted, modelled and directed, what comes naturally to you?
Trust me nothing comes easy. From the outset looking good all the time on the camera was a challenge to begin with.
