Ani IV Sasi: I had Priyan sir in mind to play Nasser sir’s role in Ninnila Ninnila’s Malayalam version

Five minutes into the conversation with Ani IV Sasi, it’s clear that the writer-filmmaker’s carefree, jovial nature reflects in his directorial debut, the feel-good Telugu film Ninnila Ninnila that released on ZEE5 earlier this year.

Even as the son of the legendary Malayalam director IV Sasi and actress Seema confesses that he doesn’t have personal goals, his works show that he has a proper plan in place. None more evident than his award-winning short film titled Maya, which released on YouTube on June 11 and the proceeds of which will be used for COVID-19 relief efforts. The short feature is a prologue of sorts to several of Ani’s scripts including Ninnila Ninnila. We caught up with the director to know more about Maya and Ninnila Ninnila.

In the first segment of this two-part interview, the young director talks about Maya and Ninnila Ninnila , why he didn’t start off in Malayalam and the feedback he got from his mentor Priyadarshan and mother. 

Both the short film Maya as well as the movie Ninnila Ninnila are peppered with fine details. For instance, both movies have the Jonathan Livingston Seagull book and two scenes in the Telugu movie have your mother Seema’s photo. How much attention do you put into these minute details while writing?

While writing, not as much as what happens during filming. I have a lively team where everyone is contributing and so the detailing keeps improving with time. During the writing, I just focus on the emotions. I repeated small things like props because I wanted the universe of Maya and Ninnila Ninnila to coincide in some places.

The scene where Nasser’s character picks up a gun and points it at his temple breaks away from the mood of Ninnila Ninnila till then. But in an instant, he keeps it back in his drawer and yawns, immediately pulling back to the feel-good nature of Ninnila Ninnila. It’s got these moments that take the audience through breezy emotions. Did you wish that it had a theatrical run?

Yes, especially because even when we were mixing the film, it was done with so much feelings and emotions. There are certain sounds that occur only in particular speakers and it was a delight to mix this movie. Rajetta (sound designer MR Rajakrishnan) had put in a lot of heart and soul into this and I wish people saw that part in the theatre. It did get released in theatres abroad and got good reviews. I would have liked to see the audience’s reactions too. But I am also glad that OTT gave it the kind of exposure the film got.

You did Maya first and then Ninnila Ninnila. So, while doing the short film, did you decide that this was always going to be your debut film?

That was always there. Maya was a script that I tried making for my final year project in college. By the time I finished writing, it became a feature film in itself and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Later, I started writing the other three scripts that were there in Maya, Ninnila Ninnila being one among them. Then a friend suggested we do something for film festivals. We came across this short story by Ayn Rand called The Simplest Thing in the World which was about an author trying to write his next story. I thought I would adapt that and bring the other scripts in too. So, the initial script of Maya was ready by 2010 and it was shot by 2016. Ninnila Ninnila’s script was ready by 2015 and we began shooting it in 2019.

Tell us about bringing the crew of Ninnila Ninnila together.

Ashok (Selvan) and I studied together in college. (Cinematographer) Divakar (Mani) worked as Santosh (Sivan) sir’s assistant and I was Priyan sir’s assistant. So, we worked together as the second unit in the Bollywood film Rangrezz and we synced well. Maya’s music director Ron Ethan Yohann and I studied together in school. For Ninnila Ninnila, (composer) Rajesh (Murugesan) was a great addition. I had the entire script of the film ready but I kept the flashback portions for the end because I just wasn’t getting it. Though what you see in the film is a regular flashback, I couldn’t really zero in on the right emotions. That’s when I started listening to the background music called Unfinished Hope from Premam and wrote the entire sequence. After that I really hoped that I could meet the composer and get him to do the music. And a month later, I did.

Ashok, Ritu Varma, Nithya Menen and Nasser’s performances were so effortless. How did they contribute to the characters that you created?

Except Nasser sir, the rest of the cast were always people I had in mind while scripting. Right after I finished writing, the first movie I watched was Pelli Choopulu and I immediately knew I wanted Ritu in my film. Ashok and Nithya were always part of it too and because I have known them for years, I know what they are capable of. So, it wasn’t much of a surprise. But it’s an exhilarating feeling when you see something happening exactly the way you have visioned it. Nasser sir’s character was initially written for Priyan sir, when we were planning it in Malayalam. But if not for him, I could only see Nasser sir because only he could bring that scare with his silence.

You did Maya in Tamil and Ninnila Ninnila in Telugu. Did you ever think about doing the film in Malayalam?

I really wanted to do it in Malayalam; everything was almost confirmed. It’s just that I couldn’t write it and whoever I tried writing with were completely on another tangent. They just didn’t understand the flavour of it at all. When I wrote it in Tamil, it just worked. Then I couldn’t hear it in Malayalam anymore. It just so happened that strangely it clicked in Telugu and then the Tamil script was never heard of after that. It sounds nice in Telugu too; I didn’t realise Telugu could be such a sweet language till it happened.

What was the feedback from your mother Seema and mentor Priyadarshan after watching Ninnila Ninnila?

We all watched it in the theatre, a day before it released on ZEE5. Amma didn’t say anything, she cried a lot and said it was like poetry. After that she went home and spoke to chechi, and they talked for a while. Priyan sir, on the other hand, said some really nice things. He was sitting right behind me in the theatre and after the film was over, he held my face from behind, pulled me up and made me look at him; he had a tear in his eye and he said, “I am so proud of you”. After that he bolted. Then I think he drank some water and said he would talk to me later. He then sent me a message, saying, “As a filmmaker, I love your craft and as a disciple of mine, I am so proud of you. And this comes from my heart.” Those were really nice words. 

In the second part of the interview , Ani talks about assisting Priyadarshan, the pressures of first film and his upcoming projects.