Kamal Haasan shares if he switches off the director in him while working with another filmmaker

Mumbai, May 29 (IANS) Indian cinema legend Kamal Haasan, who will be next seen in the upcoming movie ‘Thug Life’, feels that a multi-faceted artiste needs to make best use of their every skill in order to contribute to a story or a film.

The veteran actor spoke with IANS recently ahead of his film’s release and spoke about his collaboration with the 6 time National Award-winning filmmaker Mani Ratnam, who has helmed ‘Thug Life’.

When asked if he switches off the director in him while working with another director like Mani in this case, and relies solely on him, Kamal told IANS, “Every faculty should be on. He (Mani Ratnam) should not switch off the actor in him. Because he sometimes tells me to tuck my stomach in. Because I had put on weight at that time. I don't carry that weight at all”.

“In future, what we both are doing that one man will do provided the man utilises all his creative channels. Because the tools will make it easy. The carpenter, in the times of Jesus and the carpenter of today are two different species, that’s how we and our art evolves”, he added.

Kamal is reuniting with Mani Ratnam after almost 4 decades with ‘Thug Life’. The two last worked together in ‘Nayakan’ in 1987. A lot has changed in the past 38 years, India opened its economy, witnessed landslide political changes, television peaked, and cinema diversified. Earlier, the veteran actor said that in all of this, cinema has become a language, and a mode of communication for them.

Kamal earlier told IANS, “Cinema has become a language. We don't know how fluent we are in that, but we speak it. And we are improving. Like, we've lost the slur that we had. We lost that baby talk that we had. All that is gone now. But we are still, I think, work in progress (sic)”.

Produced by Kamal Haasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International, Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies, R. Mahendran, and Siva Ananth, ‘Thug Life’ is all set for a worldwide theatrical release on June 5, 2025.

--IANS

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