A. R. Murugadoss' next big production venture August 16 1947 starring Gautham Karthik directed by his former assistant NS Ponkumar is all set to open in cinemas on April 7. With less than a week for the film's release on the big screen, the blockbuster Tamil filmmaker, who is known for several big hits in his more than two decade career, recently sat down with National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, to talk about the upcoming period action drama, while also sharing interesting details about the editing process in a key scene in 'Thalapathy' Vijay's Thuppakki released in 2012.
Speaking about the iconic Rubik's Cube scene in Thuppakki in which Vijay kidnaps a terrorist and comes across his plans, A. R. Murugadoss revealed how he initially wanted the sequence to be short in duration. He said, "When we were editing Thuppakki with editor Sreekar Prasad sir, it came to a point where we had to cut around 20 minutes from the film. I was confused about what we had to remove from the cut we were working on. There were several moments where the shots would go in parallel directions and I needed a mature editor to oversee this. So, when I went to him, I told him to add cuts to the scene where Vijay is using the Rubik's Cube. But, he explained to me how it is important to show that Vijay is thinking in the scene and for that we need to show him walking and the entire process. The audience knows Vijay can pack a punch in the fight sequences, but to see him thinking during the crisis is new. This was a new experience for me and I learnt that from Sreekar Prasad sir. When the music (composed by Harris Jayaraj) was added to the scene, it gave a new feel."
Watch A. R. Murugadoss in conversation with Baradwaj Rangan below: