Cinematographer Santosh Sivan has put his film on hold after Mani Ratnam asked him to shoot his next film called Azaan starring Ranbir Kapoor.

Santosh has always gone out of his way for Mani Ratnam. He had taken over the shooting of Mani's current project, Raavan, midway and also shot Mani's first Hindi film, Dil Se. Mani now wants to start Azaan with Ranbir Kapoor by the end of the year.

According to Santosh Sivan, while he has hands full with four more days of shooting left for his acting assignment, he can never say no to Mani Ratnam.

Mani happens to be the only filmmaker for whom Santosh Sivan is willing to serve as cinematographer. In all other cases, he has resolved to only do the cinematography of films which he personally directs.

Santosh was in Mumbai recently for the music release of Raavan, where he was also summoned by Mani to do the lighting on stage for AR Rahman and Abhishek Bachchan's live show. He expresses that it's not really going out of his way and that anyone who works with him would do exactly that. Whatever the case, shooting Azaan has certainly cost Santosh his own film.