Mani Ratnam was not born wise, says Kamal Haasan: ‘He is young just like me but the inspiration…’

Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan are gearing up for the release of their second collaboration, Thug Life, 38 years after their first film Nayakan (1987). With the movie scheduled to release on June 5, the cast and crew have been actively promoting it at different events and cities. Recently, Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, and Trisha sat down for a discussion, during which STR praised Ratnam for his passion and love for cinema.

Simbu said, “Usually directors correct actors from the monitor. They just shout from there but when it comes to Mani sir, he makes sure to walk to the actor to tell them what he wants. Maybe this is one of the reasons why we respect him so much. The way he explains, we automatically do things right.” Haasan, who shares a strong bond with the filmmaker, chimed in, “Mani Ratnam was not born wise. He is young just like me but the inspiration he has… his choice of the leaders he got inspired from.”

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Kamal Haasan added Silambarasan’s words also hold true for filmmaker Balu Mahendran. The veteran actor shared, “Mani Ratnam and I, we have both worked with Balu Mahendra. Only he could train a dog to act. He would walk upto it to teach him action. There was a dog named — Subramani which acted in a film. He loved the dog’s acting so much that he took it home after the shoot. It grew up in his place. I used to be jealous of the dog.”

Besides Haasan, Trisha and STR, Thug Life also stars Sanya Malhotra, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Rohit Saraf and Vaiyapuri.