Ranjith's stint as signboard artist inspired Madras

The director of Tamil film Madras P Ranjith worked as a sighboard artist during his student days at the College of Fine Arts. While there he painted many local brands on walls and seen people fight over a wall. That was to be his inspiration for Madras.

Director P Ranjith says his brief stint as a signboard artist inspired him to write the story of Madras, which releases in cinemas on Friday.

The Tamil film presents the story of two groups fighting for the ownership of a wall.

"I'm a student of College of Fine Arts. I've worked for a while as a signboard artist and have painted for several local brands on walls. I've seen people fight over a wall. Sometimes a small misunderstanding had aggravated into a bigger issue," said Ranjith.

"I felt this would be an interesting story to narrate on screen. This small idea was inspired from real life and I sat down and developed it into a script," he added.

He said that he has portrayed the wall in Madras as a character.

A still from Tamil film Madras

"Some people in the film fear the wall, while others are protected by it. All this automatically makes it a character of high importance. Just like how you showcase a person in different shots such as close-up and wide angle, the wall too is featured in a similar fashion," he said.

"The wall you see in the fight sequence is showcased differently in a love montage. The shots for the wall were designed keeping in mind different moods in the story," he added.

Predominantly shot in a few places in north Madras, the film features Karthi and Catherine Tresa in the lead roles.