An Indo-Turkish partnership!

What started off as an Indo-Turkish love story, later transformed into a fruitful partnership for this young couple. Whole Wide World Films, a production house started by filmmaker Rathindran R Prasad, who shot to fame post directing Kodaikanal Won’t video and coproduced by his Turkish wife Basak Gaziler Prasad, promises to give Tamil films a global appeal.

In fact, their film Swayer Corporations was selected and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. In a candid conversation with DC, Basak and Rathindran share their adventurous journey.

“We met in London four years ago and after our marriage, we moved to India together. So far, my experience in this country has been great. People in Chennai encourage and motivate me so much and I couldn’t have asked for more,” says Basak. Rathindran quickly interrupts saying, “Coming from an entirely different culture, she has been feeling comfortable here for the past two and a half years, except for one thing — food! She is still not used to it.”

When we ask them about the history of Whole Wide World Films, Rathinadran shares, “I started this production house about six years ago. And, a few years back, she started coproducing it. Since I make films with an eye of taking them to international festivals, she has been helping me with it.”

Basak continues, “Since I did my masters in event management in London, I have good connections all over Europe. So, it is kind of easier to take our films across that continent. I am also good in handling finance and hence I take care of the production.”

Speaking about their works so far, Basak says, “Our previous project Swayer Corporations, a 30-minute short film was selected and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. We are currently working on Idhu Vedhalam Sollum Kadhai (IVSK), and we just finished the first schedule of the movie. Our next film would be directed by the Italian cinematographer of IVSK. It will be an Italian/ French/ Indian collaboration.”

Rathindran says that they hope to give a global appeal to their films, irrespective of the language — “We want to break the barrier in Tamil film industry and wish to make all our films for international audience, even if it is in Tamil. Take Korean and Thai movies for example — they make movies exclusively for film festivals, apart from mainstream films. But, we don’t want our production house to be monotonous; we want to experiment all genres.”

On a concluding note, Basak reveals that they are planning to start a travel company in the future — “I come from a travel background and hence, I wish to start an Indo-Turkish travel company, which would focus on gastronomical tourism. He (Rathindran) is more into movies so, I will be taking care of this venture when it materialises!”