11th April 2004

Krishna Vamsi is making a magnum opus called 'Sri Anjaneyam' with a huge budget with Nitin and Charmi in the main leads. This film is expected to boast off exceptionally good visual effects as technical directors from Disney Studios are working for 'Sri Anjaneyam'. Krishna Vamsi directs and produces this film on 'Karthikeya' films banner. Idlebrain.com has met Krishna Vamsi to know more about 'Sri Anjaneyam' which is going to release in May 2004. Here are the excerpts

What is Sri Anjaneyam?
Sri Anjaneyam is the first line of a stanza (dandakam) used for praising Lord Anjaneya, which goes like

"Sri Anjaneyam
Prasannanjaneyam
Prabhadivya Kayam
Prakeerti Pradayam
Bhaje Vayuputram
Bhaje Vaala Gaatram
Bajeham Pavitram
Bajesurya Mitram
Bhaje Brahmatejam"

What is the reason behind putting 'Sri Anjaneyam' as the title of this film?
As per the historians, Ramayana is believed to have taken place around 50000 years ago. Till to-date it has stood the test of time and has been followed with great interest by many. When Ramayana was telecast, people placed offerings in front of TV sets to show their reverence. There is something identifiable in Ramayana that suits the ideology of today's thinking. The problems between brothers, parents, attraction towards married women, friendship, loyalty etc were very well depicted in Ramayana. Ramayana is one epic that shows all the characteristics and qualities that a human being can possess. If you take any story, emotion or incident in present day's world, the reference of it could be found in Ramayana and Mahabharat.

In Ramayanam, certain characters epitomize certain qualities. In such qualities, unconditional serving is one aspect. Serving a noble person without expecting anything in return is one quality Lord Anjaneya Swamy epitomizes. He is neither a human being nor an animal. His appearance is a mix of these two species (man and ape). He is also a symbol of fearlessness. It's been a tradition in India to chant Sri Anjaneyam dandakam, whenever any Indian fears of anything. Lord Anjaneya is like a friend and big brother for everybody. 'Friendliness' is one quality that is possessed only by Lord Anjaneya among the trillions of Gods. Kids like Lord Anjaneya a lot because of his appearance and the kind of antics he does.

Lord Anjaneya is also called as 'Bhavisha Brahma' (next creator). He is also an expert in Nava Vyakaranas. He lived like a normal human being despite of possessing enormous powers. Lord Anjaneya does not know the power he possesses. And he uses that power only for constructive work in order to serve Dharma. He had the power, ability and opportunity to kill Ravana, but did not do so as his master Rama vowed to kill Ravana with his own hands. Lord Anjaneya is in our daily lives and in our genetical thinking as well. Even some Muslims adore Lord Anjaneya.

I wanted to use all the qualities of Lord Anjaneya I mentioned above and create a subject based on Him. I have been toying with this idea for the past 4 years. The inspiration came to me when I was shooting for 'Sindhuram' film. This trend of installing Lord Anjaneya statues in villages started at that time. When I enquired the village men, they said that they installed the idol of Lord Anjaneya so that he would protect their village from calamities and evil things. At that time they used to install statues of 15 feet height, and now they are installing statues of around 100 feet height.

When I was doing my 10th class, Lord Venkateswara used to be the super God. We used to go to Tirupati every year and get our heads tonsured. After a few years, Swamy Ayyappa became the super God. And everybody started wearing malas and visit Sabarimalai regularly. After 10 years, Shirdi Sai Baba became the super God and the present trend is to visit Shirdi regularly. I feel that the next super God is going to be Lord Anjaneya. This trend has started in districts now and it would spread all over in the years to come.

The concept of Lord Anjaneya might be myth, belief or confidence. Nobody can prove whether God does exist or not. God is said to be the 'parama jyoti swaroopam'. There are seven worlds above us and seven worlds beneath us. We heard of them, but never witnessed them. This forms the intellectual part of the film. How to make it as a formula film? What emotions need to be captured? What conflicts need to be projected? This film deals with all these ingredients.

Why did you cast Nitin for the role of devotee of Lord Anjaneya?
One should be pure and pristine to be a devotee of Lord Anjaneya. Purity, childlike thinking, unconditional serving, and ability to live up to the challenges when time comes are the qualities needed for the actor playing this role. I observed that Nitin possessed these qualities when I saw Jayam and Dil. I observed him for a couple of months. After deciding that Nitin is an apt actor for this role, I approached him and signed him for the main lead role. The hero in this film is a fanatic devotee of Lord Anjaneya. After observing his loyalty to Lord Anjaneya, the village men start calling him 'Anji'.

Why did you cast Arjun for the role of 'Lord Anjaneya'?
In all our films, we have shown Lord Anjaneya in his real get up of having chubby mouth and a tail. But in the film, the audience know that he is Lord Anjaneya, but the characters in the film does not know about it. There is also another reason why we can't show/see Lord Anjaneya the way he is. He possesses such a magnificent 'tejassu'.

A devotee has become a God. That is the story of Lord Anjaneya.
A human being has become a God. That is the story of Lord Rama.

Lord Anjaneya believes that a human being can become a God, as Lord Rama has already proved it. In stead of following it, our people are building temple for Lord Rama and fighting over that temple.

I wanted an actor who possesses those qualities of divinity, authority and purity. I don't want the image of that actor to dominate the character he is playing. He should look soft. But there should be enormous strength behind that soft looks. The best example is 'Oke Okkadu' film in which Arjun looked so soft, but shows his enormousness and power with his deeds as CM.

I met Arjun at the marriage of Soundarya. I went there along with Jagapati Babu. Jagapati Babu and Arjun are good friends. We spent 5 hours together. I observed his body language and the way he communicates. And it connected to the characterization I have done for Lord Anjaneya in this film's script. I waited for 15 more days and then called up Arjun over the phone. When I narrated this story to Arjun, he cried three times. After listening to the story, Arjun said that he had been waiting to do even a single scene role in my films. He is a great devotee of Lord Anjaneya. He was arranging a single stone statue of Lord Anjaneya in his farm at that time. For the past 7 generations in Arjun's family, the grace of Lord Anjaneya descends on one person. In his generation it is Arjun. And his next generation, it is going to be his second daughter Anjana Devi. When I asked how much he would charge as remuneration, he said that I should not dilute the emotion by offering money. This is the quality of Lord Anjaneya. There are lot many actors who said they would do it for free, but I know that they are expected certain amount from me at the bottom of their hearts. Arjun is one actor who really meant what he said.

Why did you cast Charmi for female lead role?
I want a fresh actress for this role. In the Lord Anjaneya character created by the writer Valmiki, there are no references to the quality of bachelorship for Anjaneya. After that, lots of Upakathalu (supplementary stories) were written. All these stories exploited the bachelorship angle of Lord Anjaneya. There is also one story that says that Lord Anjaneya got married Suvarchala, which is called Suvarchalanjaneyam. Lord Anjaneya dedicated parts of his life to serve Vali, Sugreeva and Rama.

The drama angle of bachelorship gets elevated only when a beautiful girl chases that man. The hero denies the advances of the girl. We want a good girl to create this conflict of feelings. She should be a village belle with lots of sensuousness. She should also match the tenderness of the hero. She should have lots of spontaneity and bubbly attitude in her body language. Charmi has got all these qualities.

Tell us about the visual effects of Sri Anjaneyam?
The stage 3 of Disney studios has the visual effects section in Orlando, USA. There are lots of visual effects wizards who worked for lots of Hollywood projects. We consulted technical directors like Edward and Chakri (Chakri acted as a child artist - camera boy - in K Viswanath's Sagara Sangamam). We gave them the story board of 'Sri Anjaneyam'. Those guys would do the graphics part of the film. Some other unit would do visual effects. Roll flaming and digitalization would take place at Prasad Labs in Mumbai in co-ordination with a Canadian Lab. Sai Prasad (grand son of LV Prasad and son of Ramesh Prasad) established Prasad Labs at Mumbai with international standards. This film lab offers 50% better quality negative developing and printing. If they charge Rs 2/- per meter for developing the roll in Hyderabad, Prasad Labs at Mumbai do charge Rs 9/- per meter. The print cost is also more. I am going to get it done at Prasad Labs, Mumbai. The reason in simple! There are lots of fabulous scenes in my film. Let me narrate a scene here. I have to create an Anjaneya Swamy of 15,000 feet height. Widest lens available here (24 mm) is not wide enough to capture it. I have to capture Lord Anjaneya with movement. The height of Anjaneya is so huge that the peak of temple comes to half of his knee's height. I want to show Lord Anjaneya to such an extent that it exceeds the weirdest imaginations we have.

A fight in this film is canned using the motion capture camera, motion control camera and regular cameras. Amin Ghani (Bollywood stunt coordinator) got a very costly equipment to assist this action sequence. The technicians working from this film are Germans, Americans, Canadians, Hong Kong people and Indians. I can say that, this is a multi-continental film.

I am going to show the celestial journey in this film. I do remember what the great lyricist Veturi said when I met him to request to write a song for Murari film. He gave a good example about God. We put on the switch and the light at a distant place would glow. But, we can't see how current (power) looks. But, if we go to thermal plants, we can see the current as waves using certain goggles. Likewise, one cannot see the God with naked eyes. But, you can see the God when you acquire a goggle called devotion (bhakti) and purity.

What is the reason behind taking technicians like Anand Sai (art) and Thriller Manju (action) with whom you never worked before?
These people have ability to deliver the goods. That's the reason why I have taken these technicians

Tell us about the type of music the songs possesses in Sri Anjaneyam?
The music would have total Indian music with no western touch. It would have Indian musical instruments and Indian ragas and Taalas.

How are you going to produce villainies in this film?
There are two ways. Since there is divinity in this film, there is also evil power (Kshudra Shakti). Since there is an innocent person, there are certain clever people who try to exploit the innocence of protagonist.

Why are you producing this film on your own?
Other producers cannot bear the project's cost. I have had problems when directing films for certain producers. Hence I decided that it's a high time to produce a film myself. More than that 'Sri Anjaneyam' needs a producer like me. The producer of 'Sri Anjaneyam' should be equally passionate and he should not care for money. So I am the director for this film. In other way, I can say that there is no producer for 'Sri Anjaneyam'.

You used Krishna Tatvam for Murari, Your banner name Kartikeya Creations is based on Kumara Swamy (God of warrior) and now you are making a film on Lord Anjaneya. Which God do you believe in?
I believe in Param Jyoti - ageless super power beyond our perception and imaginations. Serving any God is going to be a channel to reach Param Jyoti.