Not easy to make smaller films after working with stars: Venkat Prabhu

Filmmaker Venkat Prabhu, who is known for introducing Tamil cinema to independent projects like "Chennai 600028" and "Saroja", says making such films becomes challenging as soon as one starts working with stars on big ticket outings.

Prabhu's career's biggest hit is "Mankatha" with actor Ajith Kumar.

"Post 'Mankatha', all the projects that were offered to me were requested to be only made with a certain star. Of course, all the producers give me creative freedom, but I don't think if they'd want me to do something along the lines of 'Chennai 600028'," Prabhu told IANS.

"Most producers come to me with an offer to make a film with Ajith or Vijay. It's not that I don't want to work with stars. I'd love to work with Vijay soon," he said, and added that a director like him can make the kind of film they want when they produce it on their own.

Prabhu's next directorial is "Masss", featuring Suriya. The film is slated for release on May 29.

On successfully jumping from making low-budget films to star vehicles, Prabhu said: "There's a lot of responsibility while working with a star. There's also some degree of fear because expectations are very high. Star-centric project means high budget and the star's image will ride on my shoulders. So, I have to ensure their image doesn't get tampered because of a bad film.

"If a smaller film doesn't do well, it'll only affect me and I usually take it in my stride. In the case of my movie Goa, its failure mostly affected me and I took full responsibility of it."

Working with a star also comes with some benefits and Prabhu admits it.

"It's definitely a big burden to shoulder a film featuring a star. On the flip side, you're paid more on such projects. I wouldn't get paid as much as I'm paid now when I work with a smaller team because when no star is involved, the market value of a project comes down," he said.

"If I make a small film, I can only make it on a tighter budget and can bring audiences solely based on the credibility I've built with my work. When I work with a star, the budget becomes bigger and this allows me to achieve what I had planned initially. If I made 'Masss' with my regular team, I'm sure it wouldn't have been as big as it is now in terms of production value, budget and even cast," he added.

He looks at it as a "blessing in disguise".