For the past three decades, the name Shankar has been synonymous with grandeur and big-budget commercial films. The filmmaker, who has been working on two high-profile films — Indian 2, the sequel to his 1996 blockbuster Indian, and Game Changer, his first Telugu film — almost simultaneously, talks to us about why he reunited with Kamal Haasan for Indian 2, why corruption is an issue that needs to be addressed, opting for Anirudh over  AR Rahman, the criticisms directed at him and more. Excerpts:

After 2.0, I was thinking of doing another sci-fi film. It didn’t demand a big star. It’s a film in which the character was more important than the actor playing it. Like, say Spider-man. But its budget demanded a big star, so I had to drop it. That is when the idea of Indian 2 struck. You come across news about corruption constantly. It has not been possible for us to eradicate it. So, what if Indian thatha were to return now? That thought was interesting for me. But even I felt I might be repeating myself as the idea for a film did not form within me. But once I started thinking about what all I shouldn’t be doing for the sequel to not seem repetitive, I started getting ideas for angles that might be novel and true to life.

Why would there be news about corruption if people have moved on from considering it a serious issue? So, the problem still exists. Just a few think that it’s no longer an important issue. Also, if no one considers corruption as a serious issue, does that make it right? In fact, that’s when the need to create awareness becomes bigger. If it has become an issue that people have gotten used to and are not shocked about, it becomes a necessity to remind them again of its evils.

I consider Indian thatha to be a Superman-like character. I’m against restricting him inside boxes like age. I see him not as an old man but as a superhero who happens to be old. Also, Indian thatha is the collective form of all our anger — from a teen to an 80-year-old — against a social evil. Does anger have an age?

Kamal sir actually wanted us to do a sequel right after Indian as he felt there were more messages that could be given through this character. But at that time, I didn’t have a story to take this character forward and I had told him I’d reach out once I got a premise. When this idea struck, I went to Kamal sir, and he, too, loved it. Frankly, neither of us went into an exploration of what the character’s age would be in the present. Because if we begin to obsess over details like age, we’ll miss out on the chance to see a character that’s a representation of our anger.

I’m interested in working with many composers. Each one has their own, unique flavour. Fortunately, I’ve a great rapport with Rahman. In this film’s case, I’d completed the shoot of 2.0 but had to wait for a year for the VFX work. So, during this time, I almost finished scripting Indian 2. Kamal sir, too, was ready to shoot. But Rahman had a heavy workload with the background score of 2.0, so I did not want to burden him by asking for songs for this film. I enjoy the kind of music that Anirudh is coming up with, so I decided to get him on board. His songs are catchy, and his background score is also good. He gives a variety of songs, from melodies to fastpaced dance numbers, so I felt he’d be apt.

I believe in my imagination. Everyone’s imagination is their own. I don’t see what someone else is doing. I just think of what I need to execute to bring my imagination to life. In fact, 2.0 had a huge budget and scale. After that, I didn’t think of doing a film that was bigger than it in terms of budget and scale. I focus more on the thought that I have after a film. If that thought demands a bigger scale, then the film will be of the required scale. I only look at what I feel I should do next, the idea that I’m excited about, and what the audience is expecting from me. I try to find a story that satisfies all these factors and work on it. I don’t start with technology. I never think, ‘Oh, this technology is available today, so let me create a couple of scenes that might need it.’ It’s the story that demands all that.

Thanks to producer A M Rathnam, who dubbed every single film of mine from Gentleman till Boys in Telugu, many people in the Telugu states have been following my work right from the beginning. I feel I owe something to that audience, and I have been wanting to do a film in their own language. Projects like a film with Chiranjeevi sir and a Telugu remake of Nanban didn’t materialize. With Game Changer, I finally got the opportunity to do a Telugu film. It’s my way of returning the love that they have been showing me. It’s a mass film that will have all the elements that audiences expect from my film.

Once I arrive at an idea, I start thinking it over and expanding it. Later, I discuss with my assistants and turn it into a screenplay. Then, I bring in the dialogue writers. They read more than us and write in an even more detailed manner, in a language that’s powerful. So, even if we write a script, when our thoughts go through a writer’s mind and come out, they get a new flavour. But we have to rework it to use it for a medium like cinema. So, I do a rewrite, which is a huge process that can take 200-240 days. I begin this simultaneously as we start preproduction work and somehow manage to finish it right before we begin shooting.

I do follow social media. Earlier, we used to look at newspapers, radio and then TV for feedback. Now, you do that with social media. Since it’s also part of this particular story, I had to keep track of it. But like everything else, this medium, too, has both good and bad. So, we have to pick and choose what’s constructive and ignore the rest. You just have to go to the profile of the person posting a negative comment to get an idea about the person, so you can easily ignore it if you find it not constructive. So, criticisms on social media don’t bother me. The criticism about me highlighting a specific caste also doesn’t hold. But some people want to view my films only through the prism of caste. With both Gentleman and Anniyan, the story decided the Brahminical milieu, which served as a contrast to the actions of the protagonists. I never want to be for or against any particular community. My films are made only from the common man’s point of view.