The south Indian film industry is attracting the youth like never before. Be it directing, producing or even acting, the numbers are with newbies. Deena Dayal Narayan tells you more

Filmmaking is a sort after profession by many youngsters, especially in South. Earlier, it was difficult for young filmmakers to prove their talent because of the politics in the industry. Today, we see many young filmmakers doing great work in this field like Atlee Kumar, Karthik Subbaraj and Pa Ranjith.

It is not just directing where the youngsters are excelling. Every aspect of the industry has young talent doing good work. There is Atlee and Subbaraj as directors. In music, there is Anirudh Ravichander and Hip Hop Aadhi doing amazingly well. When it comes to editing there are George C and Ruben. Then there is Vijay Devarakonda and Harish Kalyan who are keeping the audience engaged with their performances. it is just men who are ruling the roost. Young ladies like Gayatri, (screenplay writing for Vikram Vedha — a 2017 Tamil action thriller film) and Rashmika Menon (Geetha Govindam) were lauded for their work.

“Soon the youngsters will be ruling our film industry and anyhow our production house is meant for the same purpose, we don't entertain any recommendations, if we really do see talent and interest in the person we do spend and make films and as expected all of our produced films have been outstood both at the box office and at the critics stage,” producer G Dilli Babu, made his debut as a producer with Urumeen (2015) tells you.

 All his films under the banner of The Axess Film Factory has done well at the box office, these include Maragatha Naanayam and Iravukku Aayiram Kangal; Raakshasan was a blockbuster last year.

He tells you that generally, people think that the producer is just an investor. Things have changed and the younger generation of producers have their hands full.

There is so much more work that is involved. Spotting the location, management, finalising the characters, getting the dates, script reading and getting it approved are some of the work that the production house team has to do. Sometimes, even scouting for the director rests with the production house. Then there is hiring for the technical staff and equipment needed. Producing a film is nowhere an easy job. Then there is the risk involved — you may not be able to recover the money that has gone into the venture.

“Even though the production team does a majority of the work, it is the director, actors, choreographer or the music composers who get all the credit. No one says that a film has been produced well. People are habituated to say that the ‘acting was good’, he acted well, she acted well , ‘it was well-directed or that the ‘music was good’. No one cares to appreciate the production team, it’s like you work so much and in return, you may make money but no appreciation,” says the executive producer, K Pooranesh of Axess Film Factory.

Young blood in the industry means change in the technique while directing a film. Advancement in technology means that the youngsters usemodern equipment to experiment while taking shots. Earlier, one didn’t have state-of-the-art equipment to shoot certain kind of scenes and the cast and crew would sometimes risk their lives to shoot a certain kind of scene for a movie. “This is not the case today. The youth is tech0savvy. They bring this knowledge with them to the industry changing the way scenes are shot. Not only this, one can now do stunts that were earlier too dangerous to perform,” he says.

Getting work for the young is easy as well. it is no longer about going from door to door begging for work. To showcase one’s talent is easy. The best and the easiest way to showcase it to use Youtube, TikTok and Vigavideo where you can perform to whatever you feel like and upload for the casting directors to see.

Some even shoot on a mobile — it doesn’t cost a thing and is easy to handle. Smartphones have helped a lot. The youngsters use their smartphones for shooting, writing script and sometimes even creating music.

A couple of decades back, editing was tough. One had to literally cut the slacks and paste it with the correspondent scenes. Today, one can edit the videos on phone effortlessly and even more effectively. The youngsters are better with technology. hence their demand in the industry is on the rise,” a cinematorgrapher Sathish  from Chennai says.

“The audience feels that qualitative filmmaking means fresh content and unusual screenplay. The challenge is to make a film with a typical storyline and yet keep the audience engaged throughout is where the joy of qualitative filmmaking lies,” director Vignesh says.

“To achieve that kind of filmmaking, you need to keep making a film. The best way to start is to direct as many short films as possible. In a full-length feature, you have time to exaggerate the things, explain what you want to tell to the audience in detail whereas in a short film you have limited time and need to wrap up things fast. If you succeed there as a director, there are lot many chances that you can succeed as a feature film director as well,” Vignesh explains.

he tells you that if you have a group of friends who act well, a smartphone and a microphone which can record the voice if put in the phone, that is more than sufficient to bring out the best of talent. “It will also help the youngsters to learn and explore filmmaking without investing too much and yet they will gain knowledge. This means it is easy for aspiring young filmmakers to learn and explore in filmmaking which is an art of expressing the emotions through the director’s perspective,” Vignesh says.