Oy To Chashme Baddoor: Siddharth On Takeaways From His Films

Regardless of the success or failure, an artist is bound to take away learnings and memories from a film they worked in—both sweet and bitter. Siddharth, in a career spanning over two decades, has had the opportunity to work with numerous notable filmmakers, ranging from Shankar to Mani Ratnam. In this short conversation with Film Companion, he reminisces memories of working on some of his older films.

Oy (2009)

"Oy is a special film. When people ask for a re-release, I tell them they should have gone to see it when it was released originally. When the film came out, there were people, who, in those days, were called critics, and they wrote such hateful and negative stuff about the film. I still remember all of it. I don't know if people didn't go to see the film because somebody else had influenced them, but it was a beautiful film and the film's music by Yuvan Shankar Raja is quite close to us. As a film to make, it was unforgettable. I saw the film even a few months ago and it still remains beautiful."

180 (2011)

"It was a film I did with my mentor, Jayendra sir and it was a difficult performance. I'm incredibly proud of the film as it was India's technical marvel, being one of our first films to be shot properly on digital camera. It looked like an international film. The music by Sharreth sir and the cinematography by Balasubramaniem sir were fantastic. I learned a lot from it."

Udhayam NH4 (2014)

"It was a big hit in Tamil and I don't understand why it didn't get the same traction in Telugu but as a film, it's very tight and features good action. The volume of action is lesser than Takkar, my latest film, but it was quite rugged. It was an interesting space to be in."

Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013)

"It was a beautiful comedy film that helped me learn a lot from season comedians like Brahmanandam sir, who did the film's Telugu version and Santhanam, who acted in the Tamil version. I had lots of fun. Sundar C is a fun person too and he has a quite different approach to cinema."

Midnight's Children (2013)

"It's a very important film because of the involvement of Salman Rushdie and Deepa Mehta, two people I grew up worshipping and learning from."

Chashme Baddoor (2013)

"David Dhawan is an incredibly fun person and a fantastic editor. I learned how he edits scenes while he is shooting them. It was a new person. People might not necessarily expect craft from David Dhawan but he is an FTII editing alumnus and he is very good at his job. So I got to learn a lot about him and how to create comedy in your head and execute it with your actors"