Suresh Krissna is one director who directed films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi (He even supervised the direction of a Kannada film recently.), thus holding the credit for a rare feat as a film director. As his latest film Mesthri is gearing up for release, I tried to get in touch with him in his residence at Chennai, but I learnt he was shuttling between Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore. Luckily, I caught hold of him in Hyderabad with the help of a friend and spoke to him for a brief interview, exclusively presented to TeluguCinema.Com readers:
Sri: Tell me about your background.
Suresh Krissna: I am originally from Mumbai. My parents belong to Palghat, Kerala and my mother tongue is Tamil. Due to all this varied background, I knew Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam even before coming to filmdom. After coming into films, I became fluent in Telugu too. I learnt Kannada when we were doing plays ...and an assistant of mine is now doing a Kannada film for which I am providing the story, screenplay, and also direction supervision; I couldn't direct the film myself completely as I was busy with Mesthri and a Tamil film. ...I did my schooling from General Education Academy, Chembur, Mumbai. I then completed my B.Com (Hons.) from University of Bombay, but I didn't know what to do next. I did not want to be a Charted Accountant like my brother and wanted to do something different. At that time, one of my friends, Mr. K.R. Parmeshwar by name, offered me to assist him in the stage plays he directed. I worked with him back-stage for various plays in Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, and Gujarati while also doing a diploma course in Natya Academy affiliated to UNESCO Paris learning theater. I got a job as an accountant in Sri L.V. Prasad's distribution office at Mumbai at that time, and I worked there for a year as an Accountant. When Dasari gaaru was doing the film Yah Kaise Insaaf (Hindi version of Idekkadi Nyaayam?), I jumped in to assist him as they needed someone fluent in both Tamil and Hindi. That was my first brush with film directon.
After that, L.V. gaaru got the rights of Maro Charitra and I joined K. Balachander gaaru as an assistant for that film and I continued to work with him for the next seven years. Some of the notable films I worked under him are Ek Duje Ke Liye, Sindhu Bhairavi, Acchammillai Acchammillai, Punnagai Mannan, Agni Saatchi, Zaraa Si Zindagi, Kokilamma, Sundara Swapnagalu, Kalyana Agathigal, Rudraveena, and more. As you know, Kamal worked with K.Balachander sir for many films and he knew me well too, and thus offered me Satya a remake of Arjun. I did that film and it became a good hit.
Sri: Satya was a remake but I think you did your own verson of it without repeating the original version frame to frame. Yeah, coming to your working with Kamal, you did three films with him - Satya, Indrudu-Chandrudu and Abhay, the first two being hits and the latter a flop. It's rumored that Kamal interferes a lot in direction. Comment please?
Suresh Krissna: Yeah, for Satya we took only basic theme from the original and worked on it. ...Abhay flopped as far as business matters but, to me, it's always a special film because Kamal did a fantasistic job as usual. It is technically one of the best films in Indian cinema and had a script concept that was way ahead of its time! Many a time, over-expectations cause disappointment. To be honest, Kamal interfering with direction is not at all true! It all depends on which way of the coin you look at. He's definitely more experienced than any of us. If he feels something can be done better, he suggests that to the director. Though he is such a great actor and director, he works on the sets like an assistant director even today helping people.
