Arun Matheswaran: ‘Captain Miller is my least violent movie yet’

Can you share how you landed this project with Dhanush?

I had pitched the story to Sathya Jyoti Films in 2018. Meanwhile, Rocky took a long time to get a release. So, I couldn’t start the project then. I went on to do Saani Kaayidham in the meantime. After finishing that, Sathya Jyoti Films brought in Dhanush sir, and then we started this project.

You keep getting asked about the violence in your films, but I want to know your take on why on-screen violence is alluring for filmmakers and audiences.

I think it has got to do with the inner instincts. Everybody has that killer instinct deep inside them. Rage, anger, and killer instincts are some of the basic instincts we have, but since we are living in a civilized society, it is possible to unleash it in reality. So, we get connected to violence when it is shown on the screen. I see it that way.

What are the inspirations that you have had for the portrayal of on-screen violence?

I actutally don’t know. In my films, violence is mostly implied, and it is not on your face. I am careful with the way I go about it. I like to play it with sounds and all that. For me, inspirations are the old British gangster films, but there the violence is explicit. Across the world, the actual violence is a lot more brutal. Tarantino makes it cool. South-East Asian films show that in a more brutal manner. I try to find a fine line because we can’t show explicit violence in our country. So, I thought I would play around with a lot of tricks in filmmaking (laughs).

The sound design of your films, especially when it comes to such violent scenes, is brilliant. For example, the effect we get in the trailer when Dhanush uses an axe…

The credit goes to my sound designers Hari and Sachin. I brief them about the scene and tell them it should be as real as possible. And they get down to business creating it. It is all their contribution more than mine.

How similar or different is Captain Miller from your previous ventures?

It is more of a mainstream film. It is my least violent film (laughs). For obvious reasons of course. It is bigger than my previous ventures and I am working with a star. And he comes with baggage and his fanbase. Also, I can’t just make it for his fans because it has to be profitable for the producer as well. So, it will be something that will connect with the masses.

About the experience of working with Dhanush, who is also a director.

He is extremely sharp. I am not a popular director, but he wanted to work with me because he trusted the script. He believed the story would work. He accepted the film while he was working on two other projects, and by that time, my films had also been released. He believed that I was capable of pulling off action sequences. As a performer, I don’t have to add anything. He is one of the best performers we have in the country. We wouldn’t discuss much on the sets as he would already have the scene paper and the dialogue. He had also read the script. So, he wouldn’t take much time at all. It does help that he is a director as he understands what all needs to be done. That’s why I called him sharp. If something takes time to set up, he knows why.

Talking about the aesthetics and set design of Captain Miller… tell us about your reference points since it is set in the pre-independence era.

The research work started along with script work, and if you ask me about my influence and reference, it is East’s samurai films and West’s cowboy films. I wanted to create a warrior character like that along with a Tamil folklore. That’s how I see Captain Miller.

You have made films like Rocky and Saani Kaayidham which are unique, but do you think the pan-Indian trend is making things difficult for unique voices.

I don’t buy into this pan-Indian cinema. According to me, they are just dubbed films. Producers and distributors have gotten a fancy word for it, that is all. It has been happening for a long time… like Idhu Dhaanda Police (Tamil dubbed version of the Telugu film Police Story). But since Captain Miller has a story that is pretty much universal and might work with all audiences, it is being dubbed in other languages. I see that process this way. At the end of the day, it is a Tamil film.

Where do you go from here?

I am next working with Dhanush again for a project which is bigger than Captain Miller and I can’t reveal about it now. It is a period film. And I am in talks with Y NOT Studios’ Sasikumar. I have known him for years, and he is like an elder brother to me. So, in the meantime, I would like to do some independent films as the big films take at least two years to make.