Every evening after school Sudevan would visit his dad's Vaidyashala, located opposite a movie theatre. He would go there to watch movies with his elder sisters.
His hometown Peringode in Palakkad district meant the world to him. He had never stepped out of it until he went to college where he rarely went to class for fear of being ragged. He went to watch movies instead. Sometimes he attended com merce classes with his friends while being a history student!
Sudevan was taken out of college and sent to work. The scared teenager reached Delhi and began working as a draftsman. Six months in Delhi taught him one thing -that he could never live away from Kerala.
Sudevan kept doing odd jobs, always returning home in between until he became a filmmaker.
“I worked as a salesman, a painter, I did artwork in Fun City and Fantasy Park," he says, sitting outside Kairali Theatre in Thiruvananthapuram. He had come to screen his first feature film 'CR No: 89' at the 18th International Film Festival of Kerala.
It all started in one of those breaks he took to come home. He got an opportunity to work on a documentary film on freedom fighter Sadanam Kumaran. Seeing his capabilities, his friend roped him in to work on an ad-film. He got behind the camera for the first time and every step he took after that, he taught himself to shoot, write scripts and make films.
There was a time when Sudevan did not know what to do with life. He took three years to come out of the phase before he went on to make four short films and a feature film.
“We borrowed a handy cam from a girl in our village for the first short film -'Varoo'. We had to make it with a Rs 5,000 budget. So, we avoided a lot of things -actors who needed accommodation, big vehicles and houses. We learnt to make movies without a producer!“
All his short films that followed -Planning', 'Randu' and 'Thattumporathappan' were made from contributions from people who loved his work. All of them won several awards. He hopes to continue making films for the people who have faith in him and his work.
