EXCLUSIVE! Pianist actor Daniel Caltagirone on Thangalaan: ‘I love Tamil films, but Bollywood is not…’ | Not Just Bollywood

British actor Daniel Caltagirone is known for his compelling performances in multiple internationally acclaimed productions in both film and television. He was last seen in The Pianist.

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost’s Lachmi Deb Roy, Daniel Caltagirone mentions India holds the torch for the golden age in cinema. Caltagirone, who plays the role of Lord Clement talks about his experience in working with filmmaker Pa Ranjith for Thangalaan. He believes streaming is great, but at the same time, we should forget the magic of cinema. A huge fan of Tamil films, he isn’t focusing on Bollywood films at this moment.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

 How is Chennai treating you? Have you tried the food there?

I love Chennai and the cuisine here. It’s spicier than the rest of India, but once you get acclimated to that, it’s so delicious. And I especially love fish. I’ve got this thing about the fried fish here. So I do enjoy myself when I’m here, but I have to try and stop myself from eating too much.

Tell us about your role in Thangalaan.

I’m playing Lord Clement, who is an ex-army high-ranking officer who basically comes to this specific region in India to find gold. He’s kind of an outsider in his own world, and life has not been kind to him. And he’s come basically to change his life around and basically change the fortunes of his family. So parallel to that, you’ve got Vikram’s character, who also wants that for his own family. So these two people meet, Clement and Vikram’s character, and set out for this quest for the gold and Clement hires some villagers. And what happens next is this slow progression into madness.

How are you finding the work atmosphere in Indian cinema? How different is it from the West? 

It’s very different. I find Indian cinema to be fantastic, energized and wonderful, and we’ve lost a lot of that in the West. And I kind of feel that India now is kind of still holding the torch for that golden age that we no longer have in the west where cinema was king.

People here go to cinemas with their families, their friends, and they celebrate films. I just think we’ve lost that in the west. So there’s such a contrast. I mean, when you look at RRR by SS Rajamouli, you know the reason it did well in the west is because it offered something so different. It was colourful and fantastical and it’s a brilliant cinematic experience. And people were like if I am going to spend my money, my hard earned money, you want to watch something that entertains me and that’s the principle of Pa Ranjith as well for Thangalaan.

He does a lot of social commentary, some of these subjects are deep, but ultimately, he never takes his eye off trying to make sure that his films are entertaining, and people want to come and part with their money and have a good time. So going back to your question, there’s a vast divide I think now between the West and India, India is making far more interesting films.

 But again, there is OTT, the digital platform, which is very overpowering with its different kinds of content. What do you have to say about the west? Are they also affected by the digital platform, like, major players like Prime and Netflix? 

I mean, this is a bit of a passion subject for me. I’ve been taught, you know, that all the time I was in India doing Thangalaan, I talked about this extensively, not just with my co-actors, but in interviews and everything else. What happened at some stage, look, don’t get me wrong? Streaming is important. Streaming is great. You stream it right into your home. That’s fine. But what’s happened in the West is we’ve cut out the cinema bit.

So cinemas are closing down and we’re just concentrating on streaming. Now streaming as you know is just content. You know, so once it becomes just content, directors are no longer obligated to make sure that they have a great start, a great middle, and a great end to make people come and sit down at the cinema. They just have to create a movie and the streaming services will buy it, because they need to fill up the void. So my big thing has been to the Indian public, do not relinquish your cinema because once you do that, the quality of your cinema might get hampered, and you can see this at the Oscars in Hollywood every year, the films are getting worse and worse.

The ones that try to nominate films are becoming more difficult. So once you lose cinema in India, you will lose all that quality that is coming through all these exciting filmmakers and Tamil cinema is becoming exciting with each passing year and people are recognising it globally. My point is that streaming has a place, but don’t forget cinema in theatres. Let both co-exist.

How was your experience of working with Pa Ranjith for Thangalaan?

He’s a phenomenal filmmaker. I mean, as I’ve just said earlier, he’s a powerful social commentator. He’s a director that I’ve gone really well with, and we understood each other very well. And I love his passion and his fire. I love all of it. And, he really does care about what he’s shooting. He cares about his cast and his crew, and I would work with him again in a heartbeat. I’ve run out of words to kind of express how great he is. I think he’s important. He’s going to be an important part of Indian film history in the future.

And, who are your favourite Indian actors or actresses that you have been following or you like their craft and why?

It’s going to be Vikram, Parvathy and Malavika because, you know, I saw them at close quarters. I saw how passionate and committed they were, they never give up and the element of always wanting to do better and better and better is just so inspiring. A lot of my Western counterparts have never done what I’ve just done. So I’m very lucky to have experienced this.

Have you watched RRR and Bahubali and any Indian film that you like other than these two? 

Yes. And on the plane, I caught a bit of Junaid Khan’s Maharaj.

I was also fortunate enough to meet filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. I’ve got to watch his movies as well because he’s given me a list of his movies. Is he also a Bollywood director because he’s had a dig at Bollywood recently. I read something he had to dig at all the big stars. So Bollywood is not my focus. It’s been more, Hollywood, for obvious reasons.

Lachmi Deb Roy is the entertainment editor of Firtspost, Network18. She reviews films and series with a gender lens. Her interviews are called 'Not Just Bollywood' because she takes huge interest in world cinema. OTT over theatrical releases is her preference unless and until its a King Khan film. She takes interest in fashion, food and art reviews too. see more