Pa Ranjith exclusive interview: ‘Yes, I am making my Hindi film debut soon’
From being a successful Tamil director, Pa Ranjith has become a successful Tamil producer as well. He combines politics and cinema to bring about social change and his films like Madras, Kaala, Kabali, Sarpatta Parambarai and Natchathiram Nagargiradhu, have made him a director to reckon with in Indian cinema.
Pa Ranjith believes his brand of cinema should make people think, provoke debates and foster discussions among the audience. He has had two successful productions in 2024, Blue Star and J Baby, and is now looking forward to the release of his magnum opus Thangalaan starring Vikram.
In this exclusive chat with Hindustan Times, Pa Ranjith opens up about his films, vision and his big Bollywood debut. Excerpts:
Right from your first production, Pariyerum Perumal to Blue Star now, all the scripts you backed have to do with social change and caste discrimination. Is that one of your biggest purposes when it comes to cinema?
Yes, definitely! Even before I entered the film industry, I had concerns about many social issues. I read up extensively and began watching films to understand society and these issues. I am not a big cinema lover. The movies I watched during college were those screened at film festivals like Russian, Iranian and German films and they are quite different from commercial cinema as you know. The issues and concerns they focused on were different.
How they understood socio-politics and represented them interested me. So, from painting I moved to visual media and decided to become a director. The main reason I came into the film industry was to focus on socio-politics, who we are, where we come from, the needs of the people and so on. I wanted my scripts to touch upon this and that was my vision.
My movies started to create debates and evoke discussions, and also became commercially viable for producers. When I visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, it struck me how much they have documented their life, culture, literature and history.
That empowered me and I decided to start Neelam Productions (2016) to make documentaries on Dalit history, culture and so on. I also wanted to help those who wanted to make films on socio-political issues and support them and make their path easier in the film industry.
