‘Mani Ratnam reaches set at 5:30 am everyday; crew is forced to leave home at 4:30': Kamal Haasan recalls director's exacting nature
During the course of his decades-long career, Kamal Haasan delivered all-time classics such as Hey Ram, Nayakan, and Mahanadi. One of his highest-rated projects on IMDb, Nayakan (1987), was helmed by the legendary director Mani Ratnam. In a recent interview, Haasan talked about Ratnam's idiosyncrasies as a director, especially his habit of showing up on the set before anyone else.
While talking to The Hollywood Reporter India, Haasan pointed out how Ratnam has become more accommodating and reasonable over the years. He said, 'Mani hasn't mellowed with time; he has become refined. He shouldn't mellow; that would dilute him. But he has slowed down for people around him to catch up. In Tamil, the word for time is 'mani', and we have a running joke where we call him '5:30 Mani Ratnam' because that's the time he reaches the set. The poor cameraman will have to be there at least at 5, for which he will have to leave at 4:30.'
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The actor proceeded to share how the entire crew was elated when he made fun of Ratnam for reaching the set that early and said that when the director heard that he was being made fun of, Haasan stepped up and took the blame. 'No one asks when Mani Ratnam woke up, because we don't know. When I announced that I would start calling him by that name, the entire crew on the set started applauding. It eventually reached him as well, and the entire crew stood there looking guilty. I told him that it was all me.'
In the same interview, Haasan shared more anecdotes about Ratnam's demanding nature as a director and talked about the time they trekked to the third-highest waterfall in the world with his daughter, Shruti Haasan, because Ratnam told him to. 'Mr Ravi K Chandran, Sabu Cyril, I, my daughter Shruti, late stuntman Vikram Dharma, and three assistants set out to go to the third-tallest waterfall in the world, which is in Kodaikanal. We set off at 7 am. We wanted to go to its base. It's a long trek through the forest. You can see it from a vantage point about 30 miles away. In the first two hours, the assistant directors fell, fainted, and were bleeding.'
Haasan and Ratnam are reuniting for the movie Thug Life after almost 40 years, and the film is set to release in June.
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