MS Sathyu: Living a full life at 82

National Award winning director MS Sathyu is in no hurry to hang his boots. On his to-do list are more movies to be made. Excerpts from an interview with DNA…

Phrases like ‘Age is just a number’ and ‘it’s all in the mind’ might seem like empty consolatory statements that people apologetically hand out to you. That is until you meet the 82-year-old MS Sathyu.


Often referred to as the ‘grand old man of theatre’, MS Sathyu doesn’t subscribe to leading a retired life, away from the arc lights. The National Award winning director would rather spend it directing plays or designing sets for plays or, yes, direct a movie.


“In my head, I am still the young man I used to be” he says, rather sincerely. “The main thing is to keep both, your mind and body, active,” he sagely states, very ‘in character’ for a man who has seen it all. “This is my life,” says MS Sathyu, gesturing towards the stage where preparations were on for Amrita — A sublime love story, a play he’d directed and was being staged as part of the Bengaluru Habba.

A musical in the works

Apart from being active in theatre, the octogenarian reveals that he will very soon be getting behind the camera. “I will start working on a couple of films,” he says before getting into the specifics. “One of them is a musical based on the life of a musician. It will be a multi-lingual and will be replete with Indian classical music. From Carnatic and Hindustani music to Rabindra sangeet, Jhumri, Dadra and even classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam and Kathak,” the movie will be a rich showcase of the traditional performance arts. And the cast, according to the ace director, will comprise “artistes from Karnataka and West Bengal.”  “Anupam Kher will most likely be a part of the movie, as will Supriya Pathak,” he forthrightly states. The movie might even be termed a part-travelogue as the story moves through different Indian cities. “The whole thing will be shot around the Kaveri, Hubli, the Ganges in Allahabad, Kabini and the Arabian sea. The story, in a way, is connected by the water bodies,” he explains.

The woe of remakes

As a maker of movies with strong social messages, MS Sathyu doesn’t mince words while commenting about the current state of the Kannada film industry. “The Kannada film industry has got stuck in making the same kind of films or is busy making remakes. They either make these remakes openly, or stealthily,” he remarks with easy candour. “It doesn’t have to be like this,” he rues, stating, “Karnataka is one of the few states with the most Jnanpith award winners. There is so much good literature in the state, and so many good playwrights that film directors needn’t look elsewhere for material.” Citing his last film Ijjodu that starred Meera Jasmine, he says, “Ijjodu is not my story. I adapted the story based on a very popular short story written in the 1960s by the very popular short story writer Ananda.”

Films need to be real

So, what about the argument most film makers make that “audiences come to movies looking for entertainment?”  “The word ‘entertainment’ is a misnomer,” he argues back and adds, “Entertainment is not just about songs, dance and buffoonery. Why, the sense of humour you see in mainstream films is so embarrassing! And how do you explain 40-year-old actors playing college boys?” he asks, with a bemused smile. “Though we make more films than any other country, the quality is poor because we don’t deal with subjects that concern people,” he observes.

As an 82- year-old who still seems so enthusiastic about life, one can’t wonder at what keeps him going. “This is my second life,” he exclaims before recounting the near-fatal heart attack he had last year. “My heart stopped for a moment and the doctors had almost given up when it started beating again,” he says with a glint in his eye. Sathyu might be alive today thanks to the pacemaker that was fitted in but that’s no excuse for him to stop and take a breather. As he heartily puts it, “I want to continue to work as long as I live.”