Basil Joseph is, today, considered as one of the brightest directors in the Malayalam movie industry and he’s making a name for himself as an actor, too. The national audience may know him as the director of Minnal Murali (2021), the desi superhero film. Here, Joseph, 32, talks about how the Malayalam industry is now poised to achieve greater heights by garnering the attention of an international audience. Local is international today. The more local the subject, the more it may appeal to international audiences, he says. Edited excerpts:
Your family has never been in the films. You have an engineering background. And today, you are counted as one among the most-promising directors in the Malayalam movie industry. How difficult was it to fit in initially?
I quit my engineering job and became an assistant director with Vineeth Sreenivasan at the age of 23. A few days after joining the sets of Thira (2013), I wondered whether I had made a mistake by joining the industry. All the other assistant directors were well-versed in their craft. I couldn’t understand the technicalities. I felt like I probably made the wrong decision. I felt like running away from the sets.
There wasn’t much of a film culture in Wayanad, where I come from. The theatres there usually screened commercial Malayalam movies and a good number of Tamil films. Being the son of a priest, seeing English movies was also a bit difficult, thanks to the reputation they had in those days!
You turned director at the age of 25 with 'Kunjiramayanam' (2015). Did you feel you were ready to direct, at such a young age?
I felt I should go for it, rather than regret it later. There was nothing to lose. I had the fire to upskill. Like in any other walk of life, movie directors, too, need to keep themselves updated.
Many of the past masters have fallen by the wayside. Most of them could not upskill themselves, in keeping with the changing times. What did you do to keep yourself in a sharp frame of mind?
I decided to adopt a very aggressive learning strategy, early on. What would you do when exams are going on in school or college? You get up at 3 am and study. I charted a timetable for myself for movie-watching. I would pick a director for a month and study all his movies in fine detail. I was driven and felt like a good student preparing for his exam. I started using the internet, especially YouTube, to the fullest. Sometimes, I would take two-three days to watch a movie as I needed to study even the granular details.
By the time I directed Godha (2017) and later, Minnal Murali, I had started researching sound design, music, etc., and commenced reading the best books on cinema.
So, it became some sort of an addiction?
Yes, I got completely addicted by this process. During the lockdown, my wife was working from home. So, there were the two of us in two corners of the flat spending the whole day on the laptop. It was a high for me, getting to consume so much of cinematic knowledge. Seeing this, my wife wanted me to slow down!
Who were your early influencers as far as directors were concerned? Who are you following now?
Mani Ratnam and Priyadarshan were my earliest influences. When I came into the movie industry, I had a ’90s sensibility towards filmmaking.
Later, I started getting interested in Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock. Then came Quentin Tarantino and Sam Mendes. Dileesh Pothan, Vetrimaaran, Nalan Kumarasamy and Karthik Subbaraj are other inspirations.
The cinematic tastes of our audience have undergone a huge change in the last 5-10 years. The advent of social media and OTT platforms have brought in a significant transformation in how viewers evaluate the visuals and the storytelling. Your thoughts?
Today’s audience are used to seeing reels that last for 5-30 seconds. Their attention span is less. So, as directors we have to be aware of this and make suitable changes to storytelling patterns. Even editing has undergone great changes and so has music. But I would like to add that classical filmmaking will always survive. That will never go out of style.
Local is international today. The more local the subject, the more it may appeal to international audiences. We have examples such as Angamaly Diaries (2017) and Sudani from Nigeria (2018) from Malayalam (cinema) that drew international attention.
The key is to keep yourself grounded. The more I learn about cinema, the smaller I feel. My plan is to keep breaking my comfort zone by experimenting with different genres.
Malayalam cinema has always produced some of the best movies in the country and now it has the attention of the national audience thanks to OTT platforms. How do you see the Malayalam movie industry evolving?
We are in a position to produce big-budget movies but we should be careful. The OTT and satellite rights give us cushioning but still we need to play in a safe zone. We shouldn’t be taking undue risks.
I know that some of the Kannada and Telugu movies have gone on to become pan-India hits. But to me, one can’t plan a pan-Indian film. It should become one, owing to the subject and treatment. The Malayalam industry will not be able to compromise on its sensibilities just to cater to the national audience.
We probably should look for a global audience. Look for subjects that can compete for even an Oscars award. If Korean movies can do it, why not us?
You are now a lead actor as well, with debutant director Sangeeth P. Rajan’s 'Palthu Janwar' (2022). Many viewers are surprised to see how quickly you have developed as an actor. Walk us through that process.
I acted for the first time in a movie called Homely Meals (2014), after which some director friends of mine started offering me roles in their movies. Aashiq Abu’s Mayaanadhi (2017) and Dileesh Pothan’s Joji (2021) gave me very interesting roles which led to lead roles in Jan.E.Man (2021) and Palthu Janwar. So, there is some pressure on me now, even as an actor.
However, my acting career has helped me become financially stable. As a director, there is usually a big gap between two movies, as we often have to wait for the dates of the actors. With my acting stint taking off, I don’t feel desperate to commit to any directorial offers. I don’t feel the pressure to pay my EMIs with my directorial ventures alone.
Since I get to work with some of the very best directors as an actor, it contributes to my learning process. I see their directorial techniques from up-close and that’s very educational. I especially look out for how they narrate a particular scene to an actor.
However, I need to take a break from acting soon. I miss the learning process that direction offers and would like to get back to concentrating on making movies.
Acting itself has undergone a huge transformation. Subtlety is the watchword and behaving is preferred over method acting.
Director Rajeev Ravi is the one who introduced this technique in recent times. Of course, Mammooty and Mohanlal used to do the same in many of our movies in the ’80s and ’90s, but since our movie-making style was different back then, it was perceived differently. They used to emote with their eyes brilliantly and still do.
With the availability of sync sound, acting has changed a bit. Actors are now comfortable in being subtle. They just need to deliver the lines in the most natural manner possible. Some of the directors just give them the scenario and ask for a response. So, acting has become more of behaving.