A documentary on filmmaker SS Rajamouli called Modern Masters: SS Rajamouli is streaming on Netflix that gives us an insight on the man’s craft and tenacity, and what goes behind creating a piece that lives for ages and not just weekends. The documentary is directed by Raghav Khanna and in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, he spoke about its idea, working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Padmaavat , and lots more. Edited excerpts from the interview How did the idea about making a documentary on SS Rajamouli come about? Well, this idea originated with Film Companion and Anupama Chopra.
And they partnered with applause, and then they got me on board as the director. I would also like to add that ex-Film Companion journalists, Baradwaj Rangan and Avinash Prakash have been credited with the Initial Concept and Anupama Chopra and Tanvi Ajinkya have been credited with Creative Development." It was just a one liner when I came on board, and then we co-developed the entire structure and script of the documentary, and it went into shoot.
Do you feel documentaries can ever have theatrical releases? And if yes, how do you feel people would react? It’s a great question. Something that is definitely a goal of mine that within India, documentaries achieve theatrical release. There are some things that need to align for that to happen.
If you look at the west, documentaries do enjoy limited theatrical run. Documentaries do enjoy theater as a sizable slice of their pie financially as w.