Tell us about yourself and how Appudappudu happened?

I was born and brought up in Hyderabad. I was interested in painting and poetry since my school days. I won national level awards in painting and poetry. I was also a topper in academics from the beginning. Later on, I decided to get into creative arts. As soon as I wrote the exams of graduation, I left for Chennai to join Ram Gopal Varma. At the same time, Ram Gopal Varma migrated to Hyderabad. Luckily my brother had some contacts with cine field and I joined in the production department of Sravanthi Arts banner's 'Jaitrayatra' with Nagarjuna as hero. Since industry was shifting to Hyderabad at that time and also since I knew Hyderabad very well, they thought I could help them in production activities. Later on I worked for another Nagarjuna's film.

With that experience, I started a film called 'Nigha' as a producer in 1993. But it was shelved. Then I did a few television programs. I worked as an executive producer for an art film titled 'Nirantaram' by having a tie-up with Poona Film Institute. We made that film with the students of FDI. That movie was selected for Cairo Film Festival. I again worked for few television programs in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

We used to have a team of strugglers in 1998 that included RP Patnaik, Sunil, Trivikram Srinivas, Venu and myself. We used to get together everyday in an Irani hotel. Then we planned a movie called 'Avunantu Kadantu' in my direction with Venu and Laya as the main leads. It was the first film for RP, Trivikram and Sunil. Even that was shelved later. However, tunes of that film were used for many of RP's films later.

Then luckily I got a chance to direct an English film titled 'Inscrutable Americans'. 95% of the film was shot in USA. We shot for only two days in India. This film is based on a popular novel written by Anurag Mathur. I was very true and loyal to the original novel and adapted it on the to screen. I felt that theme to be very contemporary at that time. It dealt with the frenzy of going to USA at any cost. That film went to London film festival, Atlanta film festival, New York film festival and Kerala International film festival. This film gave me lot of confidence as it got very good critical acclaim.

Later on Appudappudu happened!

Tell us about Appudappudu?

This film revolves around two characters of hero and heroine. They represent the new generation, who has lot of attitude. This film deals with marriage and divorce. At the same time, it is also a romantic comedy. This love story is different from other love stories in the sense that the love between the lead pair in Appudappudu is a complete one. Generally in our love movies, physical relationships are not explored. But this film also deals with physical relationships. We used the humor that is generated by different moods, mind games and romantic politics.

Tell us the exact story of the film.

The hero and heroine get married in the beginning. Then they have a break up because of non-compatibility. Then they unite again after realizing that they are made for each other, indeed. In this film we tried to tell that love definitely unites two lovers in spite of some difference of opinions without compromising on their own ideologies.

Do you have any special reason for casting Raja and Shriya Reddy for this film?

This film has a high society backdrop. Both hero and heroine belong to very rich families in Hyderabad. Hence I needed my hero and heroine to have such a body language. Raja is basically a Telugu guy settled in Mumbai. Shriya Reddy is also a Telugu girl settled in Chennai. Both of them have cosmopolitan looks and exhibit cosmopolitan body language. Hence, I chose them so that they would give a better performance with their apt body language and looks. There is so much of sophistication in the looks of Raja and Shriya Reddy. Both of them did complete justice to their work. They acted like real professionals. I guess Shriya Reddy would walk away with the credit through this film. 90% of the frames in the film consist of the lead pair.

What is the expected length of the film?

Its 2 and half hours.

If you are showing a matured love story between the lead couple in about 2 and half hours, how confident are you about sustaining the interest of audience?

The entire film is narrated with a touch of comedy in an entertaining way. As long as the film is entertaining, nobody would complain about it. The audience would enjoy the film.

Tell us about the technical aspects of the film?

When I planned this film, I had a definite idea about how the film should look like. I wanted to have different color schemes and color harmony. Photography does the main job of showing a low budget film in a rich scale. It has come out really well. Soman - who worked as a lecturer in Poona Film Institute - handled photography for this film. He used the lighting scheme according to the moods of the film. We are following different grammar for the shot division. A normal spectator need not understand the technicalities of this different photography for this film. But he would get excited and feel the difference at subconscious level.

RP tried to be different with this music. You can feel the air of freshness in RP music compared to his earlier albums. Background score of the film is also very different.

Madhukar - who worked as dialogue writer for award winning film Nirantaram - has penned dialogues for this film. He did very good job for the witty exchanges between hero and heroine.

I am very much confident that all the team that worked for this film would get good appreciation after the film is released.

When is the film releasing?

We are looking at 1st week of April release.

Archives:
The making of Nee Sneham