Mani Ratnam makes you uncomfortable to extract honest performance: Abhishek Bachchan

MUMBAI: Actor Abhishek Bachchan, who has worked with filmmaker Mani Ratnam in films such as “Yuva”, “Guru”, and “Raavan”, said the director challenges actors to the point where something instinctive emerges.

Bachchan was speaking about Ratnam during the G5A retrospective of the acclaimed filmmaker.

“I realised during ‘Yuva’ that Mani likes to push you into a corner as an actor. He will make you work hard and keep pushing you until something instinctual comes up. Like, you will do retakes, retakes and you are exhausted, he would be like, 'Great, fantastic. Now, let's try it this way’.

"So, he is always searching for that, he is not being sadistic. He likes to make you uncomfortable so that something very honest comes out,” Bachchan said post the screening of “Raavan”.

The actor first worked with Ratnam in 2004 political drama "Yuva" in which he played the role of a goon called Lallan Singh. They reunited for the 2007 drama "Guru", which earned Bachchan critical acclaim for his performance as a villager who goes on to become an ambitious industrialist.

Ratnam then cast the actor as the titular antagonist in 2010's "Raavan", a modern retelling of the epic Ramayana.

Bachchan said he only has fond memories of working with the filmmaker.

“In ‘Guru’ it was a different graph, but he finds his wonderful ways of throwing his spin on it. From there, you move to ‘Raavan’. Seeing the film again brought back so many memories.

"The greatest testimony to him and not because he is sitting here is that when you can go back and even after 15 or 20 years sometimes, look at the film and smile at the memories. We’ve had wonderful memories working with him in front of the camera and off camera, and that’s the greatest testimony of him as a person.”

Citing the example of how Ratnam pushes his actors to give their best even in extreme situations, Bachchan recalled filming a sequence on "Raavan" which also starred his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The actor said one day when they reached the set a lightman jumped down to pick up a wire and by mistake picked up a cobra.

"In the middle of all of this, Aishwarya has gone into Florence Nightingale mode and said, ‘Where is the anti-venom because in case something gets beaten up as you are picking up snakes?’

"She fired at the on-set doctor, and said, ‘I’m going to tell Mani about it’. The doctor came and said, ‘What anti-venom? If a cobra bites you, before you can say anything you are dead’. And Mani sir is like, ‘Let’s shoot’."

Director Vijay Krishna Acharya, who served as a dialogue writer on "Guru" and "Raavan", said he admires Ratnam's drive to explore newer things.

"The joy of working with Mani is that you have to be up for something new. We tend to finish something and if there’s any idea which makes it better, then you should be able to swing with it and change. The biggest trick is to find a new way to do something," Acharya said.

Ratnam's frequent collaborator and cinematographer Santosh Sivan said Ratnam had adapted well to the technological advancement in cinema.

"He has the ability to take out a lot from people who work with him, whether it's actors or cinematographers. He is updated because when we talk, he talks about literature, painting or anything other than gossip.

"We discuss a lot before every film. He has always been keen about the new developments, and has not let anything change his thinking, he has embraced VFX very nicely," added Sivan.