Interview: I have treated success and failure on the same wavelength, says Ravichandran

Ravichandran, who is considered to be the biggest technician among his contemporaries in Sandalwood, has seen more failures than success. When the stars of his age opted to play safe, the Crazy Star dared to do movies that he loved to do and in return he suffered box office failures. Surprisingly that did not deter his confidence, but made him work harder. Yet the success remained a mirage. This lead him for introspection. Now, the Crazy Star is game for his new innings as he set to redefine himself in new avatar.

The actor is turning 56 on Tuesday, May 30. Ahead of his birthday, he spoke in length with International Business Times about his 3-decade journey, success, failures and more. Here are edited excerpts from the first part of the interview.

What does a birthday mean to you? Is it just another day for celebration or time for introspection on making the movies that the audience love to see from you.
The introspection period is over and I am back to Prema Loka days again. I travelled back three decades into the past to become the same Crazy Star again. Knowingly or unknowingly, I took a different direction at some point and my visions did not reach its audience. Now, the confluence of two different Ravichandrans has happened and the people will see a new version of Crazy Star. I will blend my vision with the ingredients that the audience love to see in my movies from now on.

Tells us about your journey.
I've enjoyed every moment of my journey in films. I have treated success and failures on the same wavelength. Frankly speaking, I have always been happy with whatever the end result is. That's because I have been through new lessons in life every day. For four months, I am working on a making a movie the way people expect me to see on-screen. Rajendra Ponappa is the answer for it as they will see the Crazy Star of 80s and 90s and the Ravichandran of today.

Biggest moment of your life.
I took these many years to understand myself, to know my place in cinema industry, to realise where my journey is heading and what is left in me to contribute to the film industry. I learnt that it is easy to taste success without anything than having too much of knowledge.

One major takeaway from my journey is that our growth should not reflect in the movies that we do, which is needless for the audience. I turned philosophical at some stage and it was visible in the films that I did. In 90s, I used to make movies in a blink of an eye, but today I spend so much time on thinking about the films. Somewhere, this took me far away from understanding the viewers' pulse.

All I say is that there has been much transformation in my thinking and Rajendra Ponappa has brought a lot of changes in me. This is the biggest moment in my life.

What does success mean to you?
Most of my team members have left me. At one point of time, there was Hamsalekha, Harikrishna and many others. All of them have left me for one or the other reasons. Today, i am only having Seetharam (cinematographer), Gautham Srivastava and a few others. In fact, my family has been my team most of the time. For me, success is not how much money my films make. I consider myself successful only if I bring my vision onto the silver screen. People or critics do not see it. The parameter for the success is how much money the film makes at box office. There is no space for the out of the box ideas and only the box office success matters here.

Do you fear failure and how much has it impacted on your dreams?
I do not know what fear is! That comes with the fact that I am not doing a crime. I never take the audience for granted and try to sell a movie just to make big bucks. From the day I entered films, my only aim is to make good movies and entertain the audience with my films. Failures do not deter my confidence in doing what I dream of. But, I agree that we need money for survival and to move ahead. So, the challenge is to take an out of box idea to translate into a box office hit.

You shared a great relationship with your late father N Veeraswami. Do you miss him when you are going through tough times?
He was more than the guiding force to me. He always believed in me. Whatever I achieved it was because of his faith and love that he had on me. He used to give me suggestions and that used to make me work even harder. It is a great feeling to see that the same belief my fans have kept the on me which is why I am making movies even today. I say to my fans that my strength is your belief. Click Here to Read the Second and Final Part of the Interview