Cinematographer Ravi Varman, who started his artistic journey with the films Prirennan, Dasavatharam, Shradhu Eyredu, established himself in the Hindi film industry with Barfi, Tamasha, Jagga Jasoos and is now working tirelessly till Ponni’s Selvan. Here’s what she shared on ‘Kathaippoma with Parveen Sultana’ on Ananda Vikatan YouTube Channel…
Tell us about your life journey?
“My hometown is a village called ‘Poiyundar Gudigadu’ near Pattukottai. The reason I am in this position is because of the life I have lived in my village, the people I have met. Any time I go to any house, I get food, buttermilk, coffee. It is lack and disability that takes us from one place to another. It is because of disability. I arrived in Chennai. My father and mother’s family is big. By the way, our family was a comfortable family at first. But there was a problem. Bad events took place. Then one day after I got married, I took the old food to eat. My wife said it was spoiled. I have eaten such food in my hometown. My mother is responsible for such a situation.”
Why is that situation? What is the problem?
“My family was torn apart by a murder case. After that my father became mentally depressed and started drinking heavily. My father died prematurely when I was 13 years old. After that one of my sisters committed suicide. After that I started going to work in the fields with my mother and doing many jobs. I will help him more and more.My mother also passed away few days after my father’s death.After that my brother and I managed to live in the village.We both take care of the field works together. I started searching for something else. I was very interested in Tamil then. When I was 14 years old, all my friends were in their 60s and 40s. I learned Devaram, Thiruvasakam and Thirukkural from them.”
You have gone through so much hardship at such a young age. Did it affect you at all?
“One day after my father’s death I decided to end my life and left home. I went to Thanjavur and watched the movies ‘Chinna Thambi’ and ‘Seerum Singhal’. My money was spent. After that I hid under a railway bridge thinking I might commit suicide on the railway tracks. Station The master took me from there and bought biryani. Only then did I realize that what I had done was wrong. They told me to leave for town in the morning. But in the morning they took me to the court and put me in a juvenile correctional school. I stayed there for 14 days.
In those 14 days I learned about life and pain completely. A boy and I had an enmity in that juvenile reform school. Other students warned me that he would do something to me. So I got scared and wrote a letter to my grandfather. He came and took me. Because of that incident, I was considered a thief in the town. I was locked up in a Juvenile Reformatory on the charge of stealing a train and trying to go to Madras. But that is not true. In fact, it was only then that I realized that there was such a way. After that my mother passed away. I boarded a stolen train and reached Chennai.”
How has life in Chennai been for you?
“There was a person I knew in Chennai. He made me some promises. I wanted to study law. I trusted him and arrived in Chennai with all my school leaving certificates up to 7th. He took good care of me for two days first. After that he made me clean the car. That night I was sleeping on the bed. He beat me and told me to lie on the floor. He made me clean the toilet. I decided to leave town thinking, ‘I should have stayed in my town for this.’ , I planned to go that far on foot. That night he sent me out of the house. ‘I wonder how you are going to stay in Chennai without my help’, he took everything I had and chased me away.”
How old were you when this incident happened? What other difficulties did you encounter?
“I was 16 years old when all this happened. A month after that was the height of hell. I went around with a lungi and banyan. And one day I slept under a tamarind tree outside Kamal sir’s house. I slept on the beach. One day I couldn’t bear the hunger and went to Amman Koil. I drank. After that one day I fainted. The people nearby woke me up and bought me a tea and a bun. After that I got a job in a hotel. The working public was so hungry, I was eager to eat. I still remember the taste of the food I ate that day.”
Ravi Varman has openly spoken about many other things. You can watch the video of that interview below.