Joined hands with Sethu to split up eventually: Sachy

Sachy (K R Sachidanandan) and Sethu came to the film world together with the intention of splitting up eventually, the noted director and script writer, who passed away on Thursday, had said about his association with his fellow script writer in an earlier interview.

"From our very first interactions, it was clear that we had different tastes in cinema. But we decided to work together to get a good entry into cinema," he told Nere Chovve on Manorama News.

"I got to know Sethu four years after I started practising as an advocate at the high court. We both were interested in, and were knowledgeable about, cinema. In fact, in the evenings, we would discuss a lot about cinema. It's then that we started thinking of working together. In those early days of our interactions itself, we knew we had different tastes in cinema. We started our collaboration after deciding that we will go our separate ways.

"We said we will do one or two cinemas together to get an entry into the film world and that once we establish a foothold, we will start doing our own independent films. We felt a collaboration would be a good exercise at the beginning, but that after the initial stage, it would be better to go our own ways.

"I got into films with the intention of directing movies. I wrote the first script for the movie called Robin Hood. I and Sethu decided to direct the movie in which Atul Kukarni and an actor named Arun were to play the main characters. We even did the 'pooja' for the movie. But the movie had to be shelved due to some disagreements with distributors. Then our friends told us, 'You start as script writers and then get into direction.'

Although Robin Hood would mark their debut as scriptwriters, the first Sachy-Sethu film to get released was Chocolate (in 2007, starring Prithviraj). They then wrote the scripts for Makeup Man (2011), Seniors (2011) and Doubles (2011). Robin Hood was released in 2009.

While money has been splashed for his scripts and direction, those are not the kind of movies he has on his mind, Sachy said. "Those who put money in movies have only one thought: to recover that amount. And that is what prompts them to continue with commercial cinema. But if I get a producer who doesn't care about getting his money back, then I will make a movie that I have on my mind and that will be on politics," Sachy said.

Asked if the political thriller Ramleela (2017), starring Dilpeep and Raadhika Sarathkumar, was that movie, he said, "Not at all. Ramleela doesn't reflect my political leanings. I heard that some of the dialogues in the movie had hurt many people. There is a scene where it is asked, 'Are there any bad habits?'. 'There was one. That was Communism,' is the reply. That scene had hurt some people. I am not a critic of the Left. I agree with some of the things they have done now. At the same time, I am also fiercely critical of some of the other things they do. In college, I was part of the SFI (Students' Federation of India) till the second year. Then I stopped. I was not a part of any political movement even during my law college days.

"To be honest, Ramleela was not meant to be a movie on the politics in Kerala. It was meant to be a commentary on national politics. As part of my preparations for the movie, I had gone to Delhi for 25 days and spoke to many people there. The story initially had a young MP delivering an address in Hindi in Parliament. That is when there was a change in national politics. Everything changed after the BJP and Modi came to power. That is when Ramleela became about state politics," said Sachy.