Director's Cut

KALAVARAMAYE MADILO – About the cast and crew…

// July 6th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Films, Kalavaramaye Madilo

They say casting is a very tough job…. was it for me? Not really.

I will start with my protagonist, as I said earlier, she is a girl and her name in the movie is Sreya…

Who can be Sreya? This was the question I asked everyone around me. Each person had a name to say, but none said Swathi. And that was the name I was thinking. When I suggested the name, everyone was very sure that she will carry off the first half without any difficulty, but the second half, they were not sure at all.

I was sure; something inside me told me Swathi is Sreya… my producer and my co director agreed with me and once Swathi agreed to do the film the project was on. (more…)

Music is the essence of Kalavaramaye madilo

// June 29th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Films, Kalavaramaye Madilo

Now that the audio is released and (I am sure) everyone is enjoying the music, let me share a few interesting titbits’ associated with the making of the music for Kalavaramaye Madilo.

My first choice of Music director for this film was Iliya Rajaa garu, second choice was Keeravani garu. Both did not fit into the budget of the film. The other name for consideration was Mr. Radhakrishna.

While we were discussing about the names, Mr. Mohan the producer of the film proposed the name of Mr. Sharreth. I asked him, is he the same person we see on ‘Asianet’ channel as a judge. He said yes.

Without batting an eyelid I said he is our music director (why? refer to my earlier article). Mr. Mohan immediately called him and I spoke to him… Mr. Sharreth was our music director.

In a couple of days Mr. Sharreth came to Hyderabad. I told him the story, He liked it very much. I wanted 8 songs in the film. He was excited, but there was a catch, it was, he has to compose the second song in the film with mistakes. I also told him, sir I need a song people can connect to, a song which sounds good to a normal audience. A song which can become very popular, yet it should have mistakes… He said, with mistakes, but why? I explained the need of it. He laughed at me but agreed, because he understood the need, for the story.

Next was who will write our lyrics.. (more…)

The idea of making Kalavaramaye Madilo came to me….

// June 21st, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Kalavaramaye Madilo

Two years ago this subject was born in my drawing room,   Tamma Reddy Bharadwaja garu and  I were sitting and discussing about the movie “million dollar baby”…  how brilliantly the director  portrayed the relationship between the   coach and  the pupil, and how wonderfully he managed to depict the aspiration and ambition of the protagonist and what lengths she was willing to go to achieve the goal. Clint Eastwood is a director par excellence; I am a great fan of him since my childhood.  With “Million Dollar baby”   the first seed for Kalavara maye…. was sowed….

One day my dear friend Ribu introduced me to a star singer show on Asia net channel. Though I did not understand a word of Malayalam, I used to watch the programme every day.  It is an amazing show because every one hour episode used to exhibit only two songs. The way the rendered song was dissected and the various nuances and subtle elements of music that the judges discussed with the participants, was phenomenal. As a Lay person with a musical ear, I was amazed on realising such subtle variations to music. I gathered that there is a great difference between the listening ear of a layman who enjoys music and the listening ear of an expert who understands music. What looked like a good song when the singer rendered it , became a song with mistakes when the judge spoke about it. Wow. That was something… on of the judge in the show is Mr. Sharreth ( kalavaramaye Madilo music director)  Another seed was sowed … (more…)

MAA recognises when the industry ignores

// September 24th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Films, Hope

As the saying goes – Dair se aye durusth aye…. It is indeed a nice gesture on the part of the Movie Artists Association(MAA) under the leadership of Mr. Muralimohan to honour the National Award winners.

Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao felicitated us. It was a very emotional and a moment to remember my life long.

Getting an award is an achievement in itself’, but it needs to be recognised. Though the entire industry ignored the achievement, MAA thought it important to recognise.

From the bottom of my heart I thank MAA for the kind gesture.

I would also like to thank PFC for their kind words and compliments.

http://passionforcinema.com/hope-floats/#comment-226613

And the case rests

// September 4th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Films, Hope

The dream which started in 2005 has been completed, on 2^nd September when the president of India gave me the National Award for the film “hope’.

That was a great moment of my life. It is a great feeling to achieve what I wanted to achieve.

The case is closed.

Now I am on to my next dream. A dream to make a commercially successful film, A film with lots of romance, emotions and drama.

I am on the job, will let you the details of who is producing, the cast, and the music. Right now I am busy writing the script, it is in the final stages… which movie… (Check the post dated 24th June – National Award)… Yes, it is the musical one.

One more dream, one more journey, one more frontier to conquer…. As I always say… I will…I will

There is hope for “Hope’…

// July 7th, 2008 // 4 Comments » // Films, Hope

Yesterday night on one sports channel, Rafael Nadal was giving a tough time to Roger Federer. On another sports channel Sri lanka unleashed an unknown weapon called Mendis. He was demolishing the so called strong Indian batting line up. While millions and millions of people where watching these people executing a clinically planned strategies to win a battle.

A local channel was butchering a loves labour called “Hope”. Yes I am talking about my film “Hope”. They were mercilessly destroying a National award winning film, just because they have a slot of one hour for a film. A film of 105 minutes length was chopped off to 50 minutes.

This slot might work with other commercial films. Because, even if they take off six songs, i.e. 18 minutes, 6 fights another 20 minutes gone. Minus some scene s taken off, still it will not affect the flow of the movie.

>At the time of making the film some one said make it 100 minutes movie. I could not cut five minutes of my film to make it 100 minutes. Here they chopped off 55 minutes of the film mercilessly…

This film was being shown for the first time, after it won a National Award.. I thought if the whole movie was shown, people could have seen it, after all it was not a commercial venture… we wanted people to see this movie and react.. I felt the purpose was lost.

At the end, Rafael Nadal won.. Srilanka won… Hope was butchered. I went off to bed thinking, there is still hope for “Hope”

The National Award

// June 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Hope, Trivia

It feels great to say I said it and I achieved it, “The National Award”. The cell phone has not stopped ringing.  well wishers are congratulating. The fact that I got “The National Award” has still not sunk in…But looking back had I not got the National award what would my fate had been..

After two days of the announcement of the award, a friend of mine sent me a statistics and said that what you have achieved is really special… a Telugu film getting a national level award after 18 long years. And the only people to achieve this fete were the legends, Mr. K Balachander for “Rudra Veena”  and Mr. K. Vishwanath for“Saptapadi”  in 1989… it feels great.. But no comparison what so ever, I am in the list of those names, period nothing more.

The responses to the award and the film were very positive. In retrospect was the film really great, did it deserve an award? Yes it was definitely a great subject , an important subject, a subject of the hour. I knew if this subject is dealt well in the festival format, then the film will surely get a award. And I thought I did a decent enough job with the script, screenplay and direction.

I deserve the award..

I want to thank each and every person associated with the making of this film “hope”.

Haranath policherla for producing, Aveena gudapati for helping me with the subject, Dr.D.Ramanaidu for believing in me and agreeing to act in the film, Maestro Ilaiyaraja for the Music. The cast and crew of the film, my friends who supported me.