Mani Ratnam shares his bond with Gautham Vasudev Menon
Mani Ratnam shares his bond with Gautham Vasudev Menon 
At the 55th International Film Festival of India, filmmaker Mani Ratnam opened up in a rare, candid conversation with Gautham Menon, reflecting on his creative process, the challenges of adaptation, and his enduring humility in the face of a celebrated four-decade career
When the veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam opens up on his craft, there’s almost a unnerving honesty that emerges. It lays bare to his inner workings. He is an original, a man either oblivious to the mythic pedestal on which he’s placed or deliberately dismissive of it.
Early in his conversation with filmmaker Gautham Menon at the 55th International Film Festival of India, this becomes strikingly clear. He thought he would make one film and become a master. This man so widely considered a master of cinema. “But it has never felt like that. It’s still like the first film every time.”
In this humility lies the secret to how he carries the burden of expectation, how he faces inevitable comparisons to the classics that have defined him. It’s not enough for us that he reunites with Kamal Haasan for a new project. But to Mani Ratnam, the perception of legend is a mirage, an echo that does not guide his hand. This isn’t false humility; it’s a man reverent before the vastness of his craft even after four decades.
It’s a man still humbled by the blank page, still daunted by the leap from imagination to reality.
News Edit KV Raman
