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 A
student of visual communications, he is now a professor and head
of the department of Communication, SRM Arts and Science
College, Kattankulathur, who has put in 10 years of service. He
has conducted a number of workshops on cinema script writing and
direction. He recently produced a 90-minute movie called '377
with the help of students and faculty of the college.
He not only directed the movie but also acted
in the film. The remarkable fact is that Moser Baer, the world's
second largest CD company, has released the film.
Many interesting facts came to light when we
chatted up Amrit Raj Gnanam one fine morning.
How did a professor like you get
interested in producing a video film?
I have been teaching visual communication for the past 10 years.
There are a lot of problems in putting what you have learnt to
practice. Anybody can teach. But we wondered why we, who
understand the problems of in putting it to practice, not make a
video film. The result is '377'.
 How
did you decide on the story?
It should be a story not handled by others. And we wanted to
tell it in a different way. We took a real-life story that
happened in Chicago, USA, in the 1970s as our story. We then
imagined how it would be if it had happened in 2004 in Tamil
Nadu. That is the background of the thriller '377'.
What is the story of '377'?
The story is about how the police arrest a serial killer and bring him to
justice. We have tried to say this in about 90 minutes in an interesting way.
The location for the shooting...and about the actors and
actresses?
At a time when crores are spent to make a film, we spent a few
lakhs and made this movie. The actors and actresses are all our
students and faculty. Not just actors and actresses, all the
technicians of the film are our faculty. As for location, we
shot 90 per cent of the movie within the college campus.
How long did you take to complete the movie?
At first we thought we could complete the movie in a month's
time. But it took us 10 months to finish the film. We started
work in April 2004 and completed it in January 2005. Moser Baer
bought the movie in September 2006 and released it in March
2007.
Will it be possible to screen the film in theatres?
This is a movie made especially for video. Technology has grown
world over. Computer has become omnipresent. Also people see
movies at home on their DVD players. So, we have taken this in
video format. We are fortunate that the world famous Moser Baer
company is supporting us. Through them we will take this film to
the whole wide world.
 When
did you release the film and how is the response to the film?
We released the film on March 12, 2007, in Chennai. SRM chief
manager Dr R Sivakumar released the film and our college
principal K Subburam received it. Moser Baer officials Shankar
and Muthukumar also participated in the function.
In a month's time, in Chennai alone, about 10,000 copies have
been sold. More orders are coming in. The sales figures have
cheered us up and energised us. The price of a VCD is only Rs
49.
What is your next move?
We are planning part-2 of '377'. We will announce the details of
the project in a month or two.
KTSri
Translated by R Chitra
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