Exclusive | Mari Selvaraj On His Writing Process: My Screenplays Are like Books
The 'Bison' filmmaker delves deep into his writing process — or the refreshing lack of it.
Mari Selvaraj is one of the defining voices of contemporary Tamil cinema. His striking, socially astringent films like Pariyerum Perumal (2018) and Karnan (2021) have left a huge imprint on Indian filmmaking. Curiously, Selvaraj visualises his stories in his mind before setting pen to paper. Not specific scenes or blocks but the entire narrative.
In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, the filmmaker delved deep into his writing process, or the refreshing lack of it. "I’m able to see the visuals [of the full film] before I start writing," the director shared. "My script is only for the reference of my crew, it’s only for them to understand. The script is what I see in my mind. I don’t work by putting pen to paper. "
His screenplays are technical blueprints, and often do not translate into the final product. "I do write every scene and give it to my crew but oftentimes, that has no connection with what I shoot. Like writing theory, it’s purpose is to state what scene we will be working on, the props required for each scene, who all are required for that scene and for my crew to understand the world we’re trying to create."
Selvaraj says his scripts are more like 'books' than conventional screenplays. "Like they say, the language of film and the language of writing is that we should forget what we’ve written. Just like how there’s an added interpretation to how one reads something, there’s also a pattern in the way they react to it. But if we’re looking to find that magic of a scene or in the shot division, there’s an image that’s playing in my mind and I have to correlate what I’m shooting with that visual."
He gives the example of his debut film, Pariyerum Perumal, for which he wrote a complete screenplay but had to adapt and interpret during the shoot. "That was my first movie, so I was required to present the fully written script to the producers. So I submitted the script, but during the first day of shoot, I was confused about what to shoot first. I wasn’t able to figure how I should divide the shots. I knew which scene I wanted to shoot but it felt fragmented as I was trying to break it down into shots. In the script, I’d written it very poetically with phrases like, “from one end of a long narrow path….” But on location, it hardly looked like the visual I had imagined."
He continued, "So I kept looking around my location, unsure of how to begin. Everyone, including the cameraman is ready and they’re all urging me to start and I’m beginning to tremble. It’s then than the focus begins to start shifting away from the script book. The first page of the script was continuously disturbing me, but from those pages, I’m starting to look inwards and into the shots I’m seeing in my mind. After that focus shift takes place, the same location and the properties on the sets, started to look very different to me. At that moment, I called actor Kathir towards me and started planning again. There I saw an earthen pot. Usually, we’re all supposed to use a glass to take out water from that pot. But as a kid, it was my habit to drink straight from that pot. That pot reminded me of how I used to drink from it as a child."
That shot, he confirms, wasn't in the script. Instead, it emerged from a trove of personal memory. "I was reminded of how I ran home after playing kabbadi. My mom would be cooking in the kitchen and then I’d just dunk my face into the pot and drink straight out of it. My mom would then hit me and I’d run away. That visual came to mind and then I called out to my cameraman and explained the scene, exactly like how I was remembering it. Even 10 minutes before I explained it, I had not been able to visualise such a scene there. It’s only when I left my script behind was I able to capture life as I saw it. On that day, I decided that the real ‘magic’ of filmmaking happens on the set and that it was something that has to take place organically as we keep shoot. It was beyond what we write on paper."
Selvaraj's fifth feature as director, Bison, is releasing in theatres on October 17. Set in the world of Kabbadi, follows a young man’s defiant rise from violence to victory, with Dhruv Vikram and Anupama Parameswaran in the lead roles.