Pushkar-Gayatri, the writers and creators of Suzhal: The Vortex, delved deeper into their Tamil culture and weaved their story with folklore and micro festivals. They spoke to Filmfare exclusively about the second season of Suzhal: The Vortex, discussed their creative process and shared their insight into the art of sustaining suspense over multiple episodes. They also shed light on their collaborative dynamic, their shared vision of storytelling and the future of Indian cinema. Excerpts:
It came as a shock that the Ashtakali festival is not a real festival, given how real it felt…Pushkar: It’s not fictitious as such. So every micro festival has a bunch of mythology associated with it. Over hundreds of years they all morph and they change into something else. This festival idea came to us from a folk song which is performed at a Dussehra festival. The original antecedent of that festival is based on this idea. So those are the things which we are interested in. If you take a common festival like Pongal, Diwali or Ugadi, there is a large understanding on them. But with the smaller festivals, there’s more room for interpretation.
Gayatri: All these things have been celebrated from pre-Vedic times. With each and every king who came into power and with the changing landscapes, these festivals remained in oral culture only and is not well documented. It won’t appear on your Google search. Ashtakalis means ‘eight Kalis’ and it has its roots in the town’s local culture. The myth exists but the name might not always be recognized. That’s what makes using a mythical metaphor like this so compelling.
The first season revolved around the Mayana Kollai festival. Is it an effort to bridge the gap and bring lesser-known aspects of Tamil culture to both national and international audiences?
Gayatri : You would be surprised, even people in Chennai might not know about such micro-festivals. Within 50 kilometers, everything changes – the language, food and customs. We are looking at it from a cultural and anthropological perspective.
Pushkar: We live in Madras and Mayan Kollai is practiced in a place which is about three and a half hours from Madras. But even within Madras, in a place which is like some five kilometers from us, there is a small temple which follows this festival. And we didn’t know about it. We take great pride in knowing a lot about Madras. It’s these small variations within the belief systems that add colour to our culture and that’s what’s fascinating.
What are the logistical challenges of shooting a festival?
Gayatri: It is like creating or hosting an actual festival. A lot of credit goes to our production team. The first time we shot, Covid was still a concern so we had to test everyone. The real challenge was shooting by the seashore – it is a logistical nightmare. It was not just about the junior artists. We also had to bring in folk performers, dancers and a lot of locals. We had to get in touch with all those people who perform at festivals to create the atmosphere. People from surrounding villages also came with their families when we were shooting and they were dressed up like it was a real festival. Somebody lost their husband and the director had to announce it in between shooting.
Pushkar: In the first season, we had a confined space but for the second season, we had to set up the festival on an eight-acre property. We had to divide the place into various segments and had to decide where to place the shops, the puja area and how to coordinate the crowd. We moved people around to make the scene look larger. It felt like we were managing an army.
Did you have to reshoot any of these festival scenes?
Pushkar: No, we didn’t have to reshoot, luckily. A lot of planning went into every shot and we ensured everything was aligned with the script. Reshooting would have been a nightmare.
Gayatri : For the second season, we sent our team to experience the real festivals. They observed the nuances, like how people are dressed or the activities they take part in. One tradition we explored is ‘Pichai’ which is begging for alms as an act of humility.
How do you manage to create suspense and maintain it throughout the episodes?
Pushkar: The key is writing multiple drafts. Every screenplay is a mix of two elements – suspense and surprise. Suspense is where you build up to something and surprise is when you break those expectations. If you only have one of this elements, then the story loses it grip. These two elements will have to be measured out. We play with the audiences’ expectations, delivering what they anticipate and then breaking their expectations.
People have less attention span nowadays. Is that something that you have to factor while writing?
Pushkar: There is a lot of competition for the mind space from reels and the short form videos. You can’t battle that. If someone has 10 minutes, they will not be watching an episode but scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. But if one has 45 minutes, then they will want to watch this. We need to be aware that every medium is going to contribute to a certain viewing experience. And don’t try to fight the other medium on that.
How does writing for a series compare to writing for a film? Is one more difficult than the other?
Pushkar: Writing for a series is tougher. It’s a lot more work, given the length of the script. A film can rely on spectacle, visuals and music to elevate moments. For a series, you need to keep the audience engaged with the story itself.
When working together, how often are you both on the same page and does the male gaze clash with the female gaze?
Gayatri: We don’t really have a male gaze vs a female gaze difference. That is something we’ve been trying to consciously avoid. We have known each other from college so we look at the world a certain way, which is pretty similar. We avoid reinforcing stereotypes.
Pushkar: We think that is more a conditioning rather than a reality. And that is something which we are consciously trying to break. So one example, which is, you would see this a lot in social media, if there’s a conflict, people say that the women try to de-escalate it, while men try to escalate it. If there is an argument, the woman will try to make peace, but the man will get into a bigger fight. You will see this idea represented all over social media through reels. We don’t believe in such arguments. When we write, we don’t differentiate based on gender but based on the character. If we stick to these ideas then we will be passing it on to the next generation as well.
Given the success of South Indian films like RRR and Pushpa, what do you think Bollywood can learn from it?
Pushkar: I don’t think there’s anything to learn. The industry goes through cycles. Tamil and the Telugu industries have also gone through the worst of times in the past one decade. It’s just a phase. The key thing is that all of us have to try and get the audience back in the theatres. There was a recent report where it said Malayalam and Tamil cinema had faced close to crores of loss over the last year, which was a very good year for Malayalam cinema because there were some super hits at that point of time. What is happening is people are not coming into the theatres anywhere. When we speak to our producer or distributor friends in Andhra or Telangana, they say the same thing. People are coming for the big films but not for the mid-level or smaller films. We as an industry across the country need to figure out ways by which we can get people back to theatres.
Gayatri: Earlier a lot of Hindi films used to work extremely well in Telugu, Tamil and Karnataka markets. You talked of those few things which worked but there are several films which did not. RRR and Pushpa are from the Telugu industry, then Kannada had KGF. After that, the Kannada industry had a lot of big films which were trying to have a pan-Indian approach but did not work. We need to try to make theatre more attractive.
Pushkar: In Tamil Nadu, there is a regulation of ticket prices. Tickets can sell for a maximum of a certain amount even at the best of the multiplexes. You would say that is the way to get more audience into the theatre. But theatres also bleed because of capped pricing. You need reasonable pricing but you need the cost of making films to also be reasonable. It is not something which a couple of people or content creators can figure out. Every stakeholder needs to come in and talk about it. There is also a bigger problem of piracy. These are the battles which need to be fought rather than what industries learn from each other.
Pushkar: We are working on a feature script. It’s finally cracked and we’ll be moving that forward. Let’s see how it all plays out and then we will take a call on that.
See Also: Suzhal 2 Directors Pushkar-Gayatri On Shelved Demonetisation-Based Film
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