8 February 2023
Hyderabad
As the release day for Nandamuri Kalyanram-fronted Amigos draws closer, debutant director Rajendra Reddy is “excited and at the same time, a touch nervous”. “I’m curious to see how people would react to the film,” he tells idlebrain.com in an exclusive interview. Over a thirty-minute conversation, the director from Chittoor talks about his journey thus far, the Siva inspiration, genesis of Amigos, Kalyanram, remixing Enno Ratrulosthayi Gani and much more…
Did you always wanted to become a director?
It was my wish to be a writer. When I was in II standard, my dad brought me Balamitra and Chandamama books. I started reading them and by the time I was VI standard, I started reading serials in weekly magazines. I was into novels when I was in IX standard. I remember studying VIII or IX standard when Siva released and everyone started talking about Ram Gopal Varma. The thought of becoming a director started there. After Xth standard, I wrote a serial and came to Hyderabad with an intention of getting it published. Back then every serial was produced by Ramoji Rao garu. I landed at ETV Somajiguda office, Hyderabad and wanted to meet Ramoji Rao garu. As I was still a kid, I didn’t know much then (giggles). The security scanned me up and down and informed me it’s not possible to meet him. They said I can meet Suman. I only knew actor Suman back then. After some time, I was taken into the building and I don’t remember if it was Suman or someone else who told me that they follow a protocol when it comes to picking their serials. I went back home the same day. Later I focused on my studies, completing my engineering in Chennai. I landed a job in Bengaluru and it was around this time, I was trying to enter the Kannada industry. A producer, Gupta, who was remaking Six Teens in Kannada at that time, suggested that I try my luck in Telugu as opportunities were plenty in Telugu. I resigned from my job and came to Hyderabad.
Go on…
Within three months of landing in Hyderabad, I made a short film on suicides with a woman protagonist. It was screened in London on World Suicide Prevention Day. Immediately, Deccan Chronicle carried an article, saying ‘an engineer makes a movie on suicides’. I got a call from NDTV later for an interview. They interviewed me for four-five hours. They told me that it was the first Indian film on suicides; I didn’t know it back then. The NDTV episode was watched by most Telugu media channels. Soon afterwards, ETV made a short program on the short film. Other newspapers also carried features on the short film. Thanks largely to it; I got introduced to some people in the industry. Soon I started associating with the likes of Bommarillu Bhaskar, Chandrasekhar Yeleti, Surender Reddy in the writing department. I even travelled with Deva Katta as well.
Guess you are the only filmmaker who took this long to become a filmmaker after getting inspired by Siva…
(Smiles) As I was an introvert, I didn’t mingle with everyone easily. The people with whom I collaborated were very happy with my work and wanted me for their next projects as well. When I started my trials as a director, my nature was such that I didn’t blend easily. At places producers were impressed with my stories and as the project was about to take off, it hit a roadblock. I approached Mythri Ravishankar garu through a friend and he appreciated my ideas, saying that they were innovative. He wanted me to pitch one particular idea to a hero, who I felt wasn’t particularly suited to the story. Due to some reasons though, it didn’t work out with that actor. I was disappointed but Ravi garu said, ‘I like your ideas. You can come to Mythri anytime and narrate your stories’. He shared his number and took mine. Later, I prepared a story for the hero Ravi garu considered for my script, but he didn’t like it. He felt it was routine. I took some time off, worked on Amigos and approached Ravi garu later. He liked the storyline and said, ‘You are on board as Mythri’s next director’. Later, he took me to Kalyanram garu.
What was Kalyanram’s first reaction when you pitched him the script? Did he propose any changes as such?
Initially he said he liked it but as I travelled with him more, he told me that he was shocked after listening to the story. He proposed minor changes here and there; that’s it. After the first narration, he wanted me to narrate it to his brother-in-law Hari the next day. Hari, however, wanted to hear it after two-three days. But Kalyanram garu insisted that Hari listen to it the next day. He told him, ‘Naaku picha pichaga nachesindi. If you listen to it, we can take things forward’. Hari garu listened to it the next day and gave his stamp of approval.
Generally most first-time directors play it safe with a romantic drama or an action drama with dollops of humour but you are debuting with a thriller where the hero plays a triple role…
Basically I want my scripts to be innovative. When a viewer sits in the auditorium, he should be surprised and should be told new content, that’s my motto. At the same time, my content should be embellished with necessary commercial bells and whistles. Amigos idea came out of that thought process.
Speaking about thought-process, what is the inspiration behind Amigos?
A friend of mine was travelling to Srisailam to work on a documentary and I accompanied him to work on an idea that I had. Randomly, I came across a story on doppelgangers’ on my mobile. I found out that there was a website dedicated to doppelgangers through the news piece. If you register on the website, you can meet your lookalikes. Courtesy the website, close to seven lakh doppelgangers across the world have met so far. Their videos are available on YouTube. You will be shocked to see many identical people cutting across international borders without any blood connection. It surprised and equally excited me. I kept aside the idea I was working on and started to work on this new idea. Initially I thought of a double role but as I was working on it, I felt it became routine, so I decided to introduce a third doppelganger as well and with a purpose in the story. There are videos of three doppelgangers’ meeting as well on YouTube. I got excited by the third character. I cracked a storyline in a week and narrated it to Ravi garu who got excited and asked me to develop it.
Let’s talk about the film…
It belongs to the action thriller genre. Fearing that the audience would lose the thrill factor on the big screen, we haven’t disclosed what exactly the story is in the promotional materials released so far. The film is filled with many surprising elements and the audience will not get disappointed watching it. It will engage them from the first frame to the last. Three identical people meet at one place and their journey forms the story.
How tough was it to shoot a film, where the leading light plays triple roles and three of them need to be in one frame most of the time?
It was tough as it’s a technical film. As I was a debut director, I wanted a solid technical team in place. I was keen on Soundararajan as the director of photography. He shot Maattrraan (which was dubbed into Telugu as Brothers) and I liked the interval bang of that film, where one of the conjoined twins dies. I felt he was appropriate for my story and approached him. He liked the story but he was committed to do another film at that time and he was willing to allot dates for both the films. But it wasn’t a feasible proposition for us as we couldn’t keep our hero waiting. My team was suggesting other cinematographers but somehow I was determined to take Soundararajan. I would ring him in between and tell him, ‘I wish the other film you committed to, stops’. He would take it sportingly (smiles). As we neared the shoot date and the production was on the brink of signing a new DoP, Soundararajan rang me and enquired whether I found my cinematographer. He later said, ‘Your wish had come true. My other project has been put on hold’. Much to my happiness, we immediately signed him. Kalyanram garu had done dual roles previously and he has a good understanding of how CG works. If it wasn’t for Soundararajan and Kalyanram garu’s support, we wouldn’t have got the output we got.
What is the best part of working with someone like Kalyanram?
He is extremely disciplined. When we committed to the film, he told me that he would be on sets whenever I want, an hour before. I didn’t think he would adhere to it but he did, from the first day of the shoot to the last. His dedication was next level for this project. He had to sport multiple get ups and show variations for the three roles. We shot those portions in Goa and it was hot there. It would take one-and-a-half hours for him to change his look and every scene had to be shot three times. If there was an error, we had to do it again. He never whined at any point and went about portraying the three parts with great zeal. The shoot went on without any hassles. I want to work with him again and he also feels the same. We will definitely do it.
Whose idea was to remix the hugely popular Enno Ratrulosthayi Gani number?
It was Kalyanram garu’s idea. I liked it, so did producers Ravi garu and Naveen garu. Ghibran was game for it. We got an NOC from Ilaiyaraaja after the production house did the required paperwork. The song comes at an unpredictable situation in the film. We’ve released the complete video recently but still the audience will whistle in theatres, for the situation it is placed in the narrative. From the beginning, we were sure that we wanted it to be as a tribute to the original and the reactions have mirrored the same.
Didn’t you ever think that if you were an assistant director, you would’ve been a better filmmaker?
No, the thought never crossed my mind. Maybe because I had a good team on Amigos sets... I’ve observed cinema from close quarters during my writing gigs and I’ve learned the crafts of filmmaking just like an assistant director.
Amigos is releasing right after Bimbisara, which is Kalyanram’s biggest grosser until date. The expectations must be pretty high…
We will reach the expectations. While both the films belong to different genres, I believe the audience will get a high watching Amigos, especially with the three characters.
What have you lined up next?
I will be coming up with another innovative story for sure. I did commit my next but I want the production house to make the announcement first.
-NAGARAJ GOUD
