Director Sriram Raghavan shares filmmaking secrets at Mumbai masterclass

Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan shared insights on crafting thrillers during the SCREEN Academy Masterclass at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai. SCREEN Academy is a not-for-profit initiative by The Indian Express Group and SCREEN to find and support young storytellers. Raghavan spoke about advice from his first producer, Ram Gopal Varma, during his 2004 debut film Ek Hasina Thi. When Raghavan worried about logic gaps like police checkposts while shooting a scene where Urmila Matondkar takes Saif Ali Khan at gunpoint to a cave, Varma advised him to just shoot it convincingly. Raghavan noted that film logic and cinema logic are different, and if creators convince themselves, audiences will follow.

Insights On Past Films And Mentors

Raghavan also discussed lessons from veteran filmmaker Kundan Shah, his senior at FTII Pune, whose advice shaped his 2007 film Johnny Gaddaar. Raghavan used the basic plot from Alain Reynaud-Fourton's 1958 French novel Les Mystifies for the movie. Shah initially called the story horrible and without life, telling Raghavan that life has no plot. Raghavan adapted this to build his own version of the material. For his 2012 spy thriller Agent Vinod starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Raghavan turned a relentless action sequence into a single-take action set to the song Raabta, composed by music director Pritam. He drew inspiration from a trick used by filmmaker John Woo on the movie Hard Boiled to reenergize his crew during the two-year shoot of Agent Vinod, which led the crew to joke that the film was running like Mughal-E-Azam.

Views On Scale And Casting

Reflecting on Agent Vinod, which he called his most noble failure, Raghavan admitted he was not equipped to make a James Bond-style film. He compared it to cooking, stating he can cook well for five to six people, but cooking for 5,000 requires a different kind of thinking. He advised film students not to cast stars based only on market viability because an actor's last hit does not guarantee future success. Instead, he focuses on an actor's personal interest and suitability for the role. Raghavan also cautioned students against packing films with too many pop culture references, noting that buying music rights is now too expensive and overusing references results in inside jokes audiences may not understand.

Context

Masterclasses hosted at film institutions provide students with direct learning opportunities from established industry professionals who share practical on-set experiences. Sriram Raghavan is widely known in Indian cinema for directing distinct suspense and thriller feature films over two decades. Projects like Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddaar, and Agent Vinod highlight his ongoing exploration of the crime and thriller genres in Hindi cinema.