For Ravichandran, cinema has rarely been about doing things the conventional way. At a time when filmmakers would finish an entire film on a single set, he was the man putting up multiple sets for a song. Decades later, the Crazy Star is still chasing ideas that sound excessive on paper. His latest, I Am God – The Crazy, may be his most ambitious experiment yet.

The film took 400 days to shoot, with nearly 200 of those days spent working with around 18 children. But the numbers get stranger when Ravichandran talks about the film’s music. He said, "I planned it as a six-language release. The Kannada version will have around 30 songs, while the other versions will collectively feature about 150 songs. Each language will have different songs and editing, with only a few songs common across versions. The theatrical cut will run for about three hours, while a different-duration version is planned for OTT."

What makes the film particularly special is that Ravichandran has handled almost every department. "There was no action director or dance director either. My only assistant was my mobile phone," he said, adding that employing Artificial Intelligence was a learning experience. "I used AI across departments, learning the technology and repeatedly discussing my ideas with it while making the film. After a point, it began addressing him as ‘anna’."

Ravichandran has also taken charge of the film’s CGI, describing the finished product as a world that audiences will find extraordinary. The film’s tagline, Magical, Musical, Miracle, perhaps gives away his intent more clearly than the title does. This is not Ravichandran discovering ambition. That has always been his currency. What has changed is the technology at his disposal.

Earlier, the filmmaker had described I Am God – The Crazy as an AI-driven experimental film on which Ravichandran handled almost every major creative department, including writing, direction and music, with cinematography being the notable exception. The film also stars his son, Manoranjan. Now, with the shoot complete and editing set to begin, Ravichandran is once again asking audiences to leap with him.