Rajiv Menon: 20 takes to get Rajini and Kamal in step

Most coverage of Rajiv Menon’s I AM with Dhanya Varma sit-down has condensed into a single line: “I just love the idea.” What hasn’t travelled is how he ended up shooting Nelson’s Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan film, what the promo shoot was actually like in the room, and the technical call he’s already made about how the feature will look when it goes on floors in August or September.

Nelson didn’t approach Rajiv first. He went to Mani Ratnam, asking for “a slightly different look” because he loved Bombay. Mani told him: “You should ask Rajiv.” That was Rajiv’s first signal. Nelson came over, narrated the story, and asked the question. “He is a beautiful narrator of stories, with so much humour and a poker face. We’ll be laughing but he won’t have a single expression,” Rajiv said. “After telling the story he said, ‘Will you shoot it?’ I said, ‘Of course! I love it!’”

The promo had to ship in a week. Nelson and the producers wanted it out before the elections. “He showed me a small idea of who the hero is. Then as we started developing, he said Anirudh will come. Then Anirudh also came in. Four days before the shooting he said, ‘Can we have a garage where girls are washing cars?’ I said, ‘Yeah, okay.’” The set went up in four days. Models were flown in from Delhi, Bombay, Dubai and JNU.

Then there was the small matter of getting the two superstars to step together.

“These two had to walk together. They are not able to walk together in sync. Twenty takes to get them both in sync. I was thinking, ‘Is this a bomb? Will this flop?’ And Nelson is like, ‘One more take, one more take.’”

Rajiv suggested someone off-camera count cadence so the two could time their steps. The off-camera counter wasn’t in sync either. “Then Kamal said, ‘No, no, no, I will say it.’ He said it, and they both came.” Kamal Haasan was counting his and Rajinikanth’s footsteps out loud to get the shot.

There was also a two-face shot where the heights had to match. The crew started looking for a stool. “Rajini sir said, ‘No, no, no, don’t worry, I’ll take off my shoes.’ He’s standing on the floor and getting the shot. And I just realised, they both love cinema so much.”

Nelson runs 20-take coverage on everything, not just the walking shots. Anirudh, who acts a small piece in the promo, got the same treatment. “To get that perfection, that humour without expression, you need a particular point. It is such a joyous experience. Nobody is tense, everybody is calm, we are shooting.”

The most consequential decision Rajiv has already made for the feature is the glass. The film will be shot on vintage Cooke S4 lenses, with retro lighting. The reason is plain. “You’re dealing with people who are relatively in their 70s. So they have to look good. If you use very new lenses, you’ll see all the wrinkles. Then after that, you have to put a filter. So I used relatively vintage Cooke S4 lenses, and tried some retro lighting.” That is a choice made ahead of post, not in DI; the look is being baked into the camera negative rather than fixed downstream.

The promo, by his own count, did standalone numbers nothing in his catalogue has touched. “I got more phone calls for that one small promo as a cameraman, as a DOP, than I’ve gotten for many films I’ve shot.” Floors are now set for August or September, after both lead actors finish their other commitments. Anirudh remains attached as composer.

Sundar C separately walked away from a different Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan project some time back, citing “too much pressure” to handle. The Nelson film, by all signals, is the one moving.