Why Mani Ratnam ended up in hospital

The slowdown is choking funding for India's best-known director, and pushing him to overwork to the point of exhaustion

Why Mani Ratnam ended up in hospital

The slowdown is choking funding for India's best-known director, and pushing him to overwork to the point of exhaustion

An exhausted Mani Ratnam was admitted to hospital yesterday, and many in the film industry are afraid he is ruining his health beyond repair by working at a frenetic pace.

Mani Ratnam's bilingual, called Raavan in Hindi and Asokavanam in Tamil, is nearly ready. It stars Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, and Tamil star Vikram.

Rumours made the rounds yesterday that the auteur had suffered a heart attack, but his publicist told MiD DAY it was just exhaustion.

"His condition is stable, and he should be out of hospital in two days," said Nikhil Murugan, PRO for Mani Ratnam.

Why is Mani Ratnam driving himself so hard?

The big stars had given him dates for a production to be funded by a corporate production house, but it backed out at the last moment, citing money flow problems.

Left with a ready star cast, he decided to put in his own money and go ahead with the shooting. Two star-friends have also invested in the project, a source said.

Mani Ratnam is in a hurry to wrap up the film as quickly as possible.

On Tuesday, he spent time with movie industry friends such as A R Rahman, Ajith, Arvind Samy, and P C Sreeram at a hospital ward built in memory of music composer Mahesh, who died of cancer soon after he made music for a Kamal Haasan starrer.

'His condition is stable'

Mani Ratnam, who introduced Oscar-winning musician A R Rahman in Roja, wasn't sleeping enough, and was gamely putting up with the rigours of camp life deep inside the forests of Kerala.

Known to be a perfectionist, Mani Ratnam's Nayakan, Agni Natchatram, Anjali, Guru, Bombay, Dil Se, and Kannathil Muthamittal have received wide acclaim, and moderate to big box office success.

The MBA who became an auteur
>>Born on June 2, 1956 in Madurai in Tamil Nadu, his original name is Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam Iyer.
>>A commerce graduate who went on to do an MBA, he worked as a career management consultant before he came into the movies.
>>He got into film direction with the help of his late brother, film producer G Venkateswaran.
>>Mani Ratnam married actress Suhasini in 1988. They have a son, Nandhan, who is a CPM activist.
>>Mani Ratnam's first film Pallavi Anu Pallavi (1983) was in Kannada and starred Anil Kapoor. It received rave reviews but got a lukewarm response at the box office.
>>His second film was in Malayalam. He entered the Tamil industry after that, and delivered hit after hit: Mouna Raagam (1986), Nayagan (1987), Anjali (1990), Iruvar (1997), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Yuva (2004), and his 'political trilogy' of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se (1998).
>>Mani Ratnam's Nayagan is included in Time magazine's all-time 100 greatest movies.

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