Behind the Frames: Thota Tharani’s Journey Through the Lens of Cinema

I suspect that Thota Tharani’s wise white beard flows the way it does because it is full of stories. At 75, the artist and one of Indian cinema’s finest art directors, does not just share a lesson or two on life. His wit sparkles through repartee and banter — always choosing a quip between questions, ready to make his audience giggle. At his sprawling studio in the quiet, residential lanes of Thiruvanmiyur, one wades through a sea of canvases, sculptures, and tubes of paint, to sit down and have a chat. Then he begins, with a tale as old as time, about the magic of celluloid.

“My first memories of a cinema set come from when I was a young child accompanying my father [Thota Venkateswara Rao] who was an art director himself. Back then, people like Waheeda Rahman [actor], would carry me around. I spent much of my time there, drawing. Senior artistes would often come by and ask me what I was drawing,” he says.

It is this very memory, buried under the long reels that make up life, that he hopes to unearth in his latest exhibition titled Cahiers du Cinéma, set to be on display between November 1 and 14 at the Alliance Française of Madras. In it, expect to see over 25 paintings, frames made of discarded material — old doors, window frames, chairs, and bits of roofing. Mostly though, expect to see life in cinema from the days of yore, when horsemen were plentiful, and lightmen took years to hone and shape the shadows.

Part of the exhibition titled Cahiers du Cinéma
| Photo Credit:
Thota Tharani

“The sketches are made on gada cloth with sketch pens to bring together this kind of effect. The exhibition is a dedication to the young cleaning boys, cameramen, directorial assistants — people behind the scenes who helped build worlds and make cinema come alive. I grew up with these images and spent much time observing the scenes. They have all come back to me and found themselves on the canvas,” says the architect of some of Indian cinema’s most vivid images including Ponniyin Selvan,Nayakan, and Sivaji. These are merely a few prominent names in his lengthy filmography.

According to Thota Tharani, everything is a subject. One only needs to take time out to learn, study, and most importantly observe. In his world, observation is the best tool to inform artists about concepts like velocity. “It helps show how wind translates on paper,” he says. He traces his long tryst with various subjects including figurative drawings of roosters and peacocks in the very beginning. Eventually, he began painting common sceneries, still life, gods and goddesses. It was after this stage that he chanced upon the idea of playing around with Indian scripts. “The mother tongue, it’s a treasure, a pokkisham. In how one pronounces it, lies its beauty. I took the idea of using script as a personal challenge and began playing around with it as my next major subject,” he says.

In conversation with The Hindu, Thotta Tharani talked about the inspiration behind his art and paintings.
| Photo Credit:
Shivaraj S

Over the years, people have also encountered the artist’s printmaking and quick sketches made in France between 1976 and 1977 at Atelier 17, an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th Century. “I travelled to all parts of the French territory, watching small ribbons hanging from fences. It is here that I envisioned my next major collection, Symphony. I have many sketches from the era,” he says. He also did several detailed French drawings and a series on the mysteries of the world, painting a black hole back in 1976 and 1977, on a 20 by 8 feet canvas.

Years have passed. This zest to create has ceased to die. For a long time, he insisted on creating at least one painting, drawing, or scribbling, a day and wanted to have at least one show. Today, the count stands at around 120 shows over 70 years, he says.

As we speak, Thota Tharani pulls out his phone and shows us a whole stack of messages, waiting for his approval and creations for films, from producers and directors. How does he find time to create personal art? “There is no carving time. One must just do. This has been my motto since college [He studied at the Madras School of Arts where he received a double promotion to second year, skipping the first]. Back then, one did not have a line up of jobs, particularly after completing an Arts course. We did what we had to do with focus to get by,” he says.

Thotta Tharani
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

When he does not create, Thota Tharani can be seen enjoying classical music. His favourite is Johannes Brahms despite the deep, intense, and occasionally melancholic sound. Besides this composer, he also listens to the big three — Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as well as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Frédéric Chopin. “Tamil cinema composers are no less though. Look at Ilayairaaja, he is a genius and a very intelligent fellow. He would write notes just before reaching the theatre. In another life, I would have liked to have been a conductor,” he says.

For now though, duty calls.

Thota Tharani, windswept in white, whizzes away to check if the placement of his works at Alliance is perfect. “Swing by one of these days. We will go over the art that I made for films,” he says, parting with a promise.

Cahiers du Cinéma is on display between November 1 and 14 at the Alliance Francaise de Madras, Nungambakkam. Entry is free.

Published – October 30, 2025 02:05 am IST