Real Estate to Dream State
Age: 32
Route to success: Nalan was into event management and real estate and all set to start his own business when he heard about Naalaya Iyakunar. There were just ten days to the deadline. So he turned it meta and made a short called Oru Padam Edukkanum about a filmmaker with a deadline. He went on to make seven more short films. Nenjukku Neethi , his entry for the final round, made him win the first season of the show.
Learning from the show: “It was a complete A to Z holistic learning in filmmaking because you had to do everything. From art direction to production management, handling extreme stress and high pressure. It was like a film school, that whole year we spent making films,” says Nalan. “These shows haven’t clicked anywhere else in the world, they died out after a season or two because they were not feasible. Here, they made it feasible by making the participants produce their own films, after giving us a token amount of Rs 5,000 per film,” he observes. “The films would cost a lot of money, from Rs. 20,000 to a lakh. I am glad my parents supported me.”
First film: “I just thought I can be a scriptwriter but after making these films, I gained confidence. I got two or three offers but I was keen to make the film I wanted to make and on my terms. I am a Guy Ritchie fan and was thinking of making a gangster film when my writer-friend Srinivasan suggested I could take the kidnap knot from my short film Enna Nadanthathu Na and turn it into a full film. I started off with a one line: How a minister’s son who is a criminal becomes a minister.
Signature style:
“I might have a unique cutting pattern of how I tell my stories. There will always be some comic elements. But honestly, I try to avoid a signature. I want to keep jumping genres and avoid repetition.
Maybe the only thing common in all films is this: They are all extreme fantasy situations made plausible and believable.
Next: A romantic comedy to be produced by CV Kumar that he is still scripting.
Links to Short films:
YouTube.com/nalanish
