Ram Madhvani: ‘I’m in the business of capturing energies’

Mumbai, Nov 13

Director Ram Madhvani, who is receiving a lot of positive response for his recently released third season of the Sushmita Sen-starrer crime-thriller show ‘Aarya’, has said that contrary to the popular belief, he is not in the business of making movie but what he considers "the business of capturing energies" while working with talents.

Ram is the creator on the third season of ‘Aarya’, and is known for his silent sets where yelling “action”, “cut” or “silence” is prohibited, and the director feels that maintaining the right energy on set is very important.

He told IANS: “I’m not in the business of making movies but in the business of capturing energies. So, what happens is when you’re trying to capture that energy, you have to be very careful because it’s very delicate. Also, I enjoy the process more than the end result. If you’re enjoying the process and are honest about it, the output will be near perfect.”

Pointing out the irony that has become a norm on film sets, he said: “I’ve often seen sets where people scream silence before taking a shot, beats the purpose doesn’t it? When you scream 'action', 'silence', 'cut', what it does is that it disturbs the peace of the artiste and if they get disturbed, how are they going to perform to their maximum potential? I never say 'action' or 'cut', these have become sort of tense words.”

For the third season, Ram has taken the onus as a show creator and has his first assistant director from the first season of the show - Shraddha Pasi Jairath taking the flight as director.

Talking about nurturing new talents, he told IANS: “A lot of people say that I’m mentor to them but in reality, young people are mentors to me because they come with new energy, new perspectives. There’s a lot of reverse learning which makes you reinvent yourself. So, I do this for myself more than me giving new opportunities to them (laughs).”

For Ram, who has been in the field of advertising, every new season starts with active listening -- listening to what the audience is trying to tell him.

He shared: “The writing starts by listening to what the audience wants, what was their feedback on season 2, a lot of this comes from my advertisement background, I believe in research and in marketing. Like we got to know that the audience wanted Aarya to take control in season 3, they wanted her to be the don. So, we went with that and it put us on the right path.”

He also spoke about the origins of his 360 degree system of shooting where an entire set is like a live theatre making the experience for the actors very immersive.

Explaining the origins of the 360 degree system, he said: “The 360 degree system began years ago with my first film ‘Let’s Talk’ when I decided to make the film with a limited crew. Now, I’m constantly making commercial cinema but I come from a very independent cinema thought process. I want to make independent films but if I do that I won’t be able to reach a lot of people. So, what I have done is that I have mixed the two. While my thinking leans towards independent cinema, my means to reach the audience are commercial and the indie stories have commercial sensibilities.”

Created and co-directed by Ram Madhvani and co-produced by Amita Madhavni, Ram Madhvani, Ram Madhvani Films and Endemol Shine India, ‘Aarya 3’ streams on Disney+ Hotstar.