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Recently, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap made headlines when he criticised the increasing use of English lyrics in Tamil songs. In his words, the trend didn’t “make sense at all.” The comments sparked debate across the industry, especially considering the rise of bilingual and English-heavy tracks in South Indian cinema. Now, legendary director Mani Ratnam, whose four-decade-long career has given Tamil cinema some of its most iconic songs, is addressing those claims. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Ratnam offered a thoughtful response, particularly in the context of his upcoming film Thug Life, which features English lyrics in the much-discussed track titled “Sugar Baby.”
“See, most of my film titles have been in Tamil. But it’s not a restrictive thing,” Ratnam said. “You don’t go in with rules saying, ‘I will do only this.’ I think a medium opens itself up. If it feels right, then you take that step which feels right for you. Why box yourself in with some false grammar?” Emphasising his deep respect for Tamil language and poetry, Ratnam added, “If you really like Tamil, which I do, I try to use a lot of it. A lot of it goes to… you know, Rehman and I have taken a lot of poetry from Tamil literature to make into songs. So it kind of brings the quality of Tamil, the thought and the content, to a much higher level when you pick it up? You bridge the gap between the two. So you can do that on one hand. And if sometimes you need a ‘Sugar Baby’ and it feels right, then you go for it. There’s no… I mean, there’s no one way or the other. As long as you care enough for both.”
When asked whether English lyrics or titles are used to cater to a younger audience, Ratnam was quick to refute that idea. “But that alone cannot sell. That alone doesn’t make a product. Just trying to be young and cool is not enough. A film will show you who you are when it is finished. So you cannot get away with these false things. That can only help a story if it sets the characters like that, and you have to bring that across.” On how he continues to stay relevant to younger viewers even after four decades in the industry, Ratnam drew a parallel with writing unfamiliar characters. “If you have to write a script based on mafia people, you’ve never been one. But you still write films based on that. Similarly, today’s youngster, you want to write, you learn, you see, and you write on that. So it’s not very difficult. The question is: is your way of thinking, your narrative, relevant? Do they have the attention span for your logic, for your narrative? Now that changes drastically. There may be some kind of jokes I would have said—that are no longer impressive these days. Then they are not going to care for it. So I think, more than knowing, it’s your language and your structure that makes a difference.”
And if the day comes when he no longer feels relevant? “If I’m irrelevant, I’ll just drop by,” he said with a laugh. “Like I told you, cinema is not the end of the world. It’s something which is fascinating, something that you love to do. And they pay you for it. So it’s good.” Ratnam is currently gearing up for the release of Thug Life, starring Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan, Abhirami, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Rohit Saraf, and Baburaj. The film marks a reunion between Haasan and Ratnam, nearly four decades after their iconic collaboration in Nayakan.
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