Sriram Raghavan aims to keep old films alive through sneaky references

He is a cinema aficionado at heart and often tips his hat to old masters in his films through sneaky references. It is Sriram Raghavan's way of keeping the classics alive.

The director loves the fact that his followers look forward to these references in his films but says he has to be careful about not being indulgent.

"Some of the films I grew up on, I feel most people these days don't know about them. They will just disappear and so I try my best sometimes to get something inside from those films. Of course, it has to be relevant to my story. I cannot do it as an indulgence," Raghavan told PTI in an interview.

The director, known for thrillers such as “Ek Haseena Thi”, “Johnny Gaddar” and “Badlapur”, is back with another feature “Andhadhun” and as usual, the cinema lovers can spot the past references.

“The older films, especially the classics, are in our subconscious. Today’s audiences, unless they go and search for them, they won’t find those films. These films were made 30-40 years ago and they are classics. They are study films actually but unfortunately people don’t know about them,” Raghavan says.

Such is the explosion of content now that the audiences have too much on their plate, hence it is not always possible to keep up with the old classics.

"There is also too much to watch. I don’t know how people pick and watch. There is limited time and just too much content available. I mean you have Netflix and Amazon, there is already too much there plus our films. There are four-five releases every week.”

He says there should be a movement to preserve old films.

“I just feel that there are so many great films which shouldn’t get buried. There should be some kind of revival and excitement about them. So when we make a film which refers to a past movie, hopefully, it will raise some interest about that movie as well,” Raghavan says.

The director says it is wrong to believe that the audiences are "simple-minded" and hence would not be receptive to new ideas.

"A lot of producers and hence, writers and all of us, we tend to think that our audiences are too simple-minded and hence new ideas should be avoided. They say it will not work. But I feel that people should at least try that. I mean, you can’t dumb it down just for the sake of simplicity.

"There is a growing audience for sophisticated cinema. I personally believe that I am making a film for an audience which is intelligent. I cannot think that these people need spoon-feeding," he says.

"Andhadhun" is a thriller and should not be confused with a whodunit, Raghavan says.

"In India, people confuse suspense with a guessing game. I have not made a single whodunnit. Whodunnit is what Agatha Christie writes about.

"In my stories, I prefer the method where I give as much information to the audience as I can. So they know what's going on. Like in 'Johnny Gaddar', everybody knows what happens right from the beginning, but the characters don’t. Viewers' fun is to watch how these dynamics play out. The truth is in front of you, but do you see it? That's the question."

"Andhadhun", which features Ayushmann Khurrana as the blind pianist, Tabu, Radhika Apte and Anil Dhawan, releases Friday.

(With inputs from agencies.)