“The Freedom and Joy of Making Small Films is in the Writing”

Few Tollywood directors created a niche for themselves with their debut film as Nandini Reddy did with “Ala Modalaindi”. A brutally honest, sometimes self-effacing and always straight-talking conversation with the fledgling director about her new movie, the starcast, small movie trends, the creative side of the film-making process and the business side of a film. In a nutshell, you realise Nandini Reddy is a producer’s director who is in command of the craft. “Kalyan Vaibhogame” is releasing on March 4 – which also happens to be the director’s birthday. As you will realise, the release was not really planned for her birthday.

Tell us about your upcoming movie “Kalyana Vaibhogame”

My first film “Ala Modalaindi” was a realistic film. My second film “Jabardast” was a loud, over-the-top comedy which is not exactly what I am. KV takes me back to my strengths which the audience has seen in my first film. The tone, texture and the realistic feel of the film takes my new film closer to AM but the story now is completely different.

Why so much gap after “Jabardast”?

If you have a flop, this is what happens. People are not going to chase you to make movies for them. You have to start from the scratch. Infant, I feel I am now starting all over again. I have learnt a lot from the previous film.

How was it have Mr Damu back as the producer?

It’s a home turf for me. I don’t need to convince him on anything. We are always on the same page. Our tastes, approach to films is similar and we are very upfront with each other. Both of us have great comfort working with each other. I approach my film from a producer’s point of view and he looks at things from a director’s point of view so we work well together.

Do you really tighten things from the producer’s view?

You have to do that right? Every film has to survive the test of a producer. First is the story and then the economics of the film. There is a certain viability for a certain film. You have to be mindful of how much the starcast is costing, what are your previous successes or failures as a director, what is the producer’s risk and what is the final marketability of the film. Keeping that in mind, you plan the budget. Ultimately, my goal is to see that my producer gets his money back and makes a profit too. Only then will the director survive to make another film.You cannot predict whether the film will do well or not. But the bottomline is to ensure that the money invested comes back atleast. That was my primary target and this film was built on a slightly bigger budget than we could afford.

Once we realised that, we worked out the various heads of costs and discussed where we should flesh out and we should cut down on the costs. Finally, I can say things worked out well so far and this is the first film in the banner where the producer has made a table profit even before the film is released.

Why is the budget high for this film than even “Jabardast”?

Infact, the budget is not higher than “Jabardast” because the starcast itself cost a bomb! But for KV, there is a backdrop of marriage and about 24 actors which costs more. AM was simplistic and spread over few situations. But KV is more complex, elaborate and spread out in canvass. So the cost factor is up.

But why did you have to wait for long to release the film? Wasn’t the launch announced in January?

We originally announced it for January 22nd but all the films released for Sankranti did very well which led to non-availability of the theatres till almost February. Since February had some big budget films of Nani etc., we waited so long. Once you make a film and sell it, you have to listen to what the buyers and the distributors say about the dates. So we got pushed and waited for this day since we wanted a minimum number of screens. The buyers also felt this date will help garner more money so we settled for March 4.

Is there any other significance to the release date of March 4?

Well almost yes. It is a strange coincidence that Number 4 is lucky for a lot of us associated with the film. 4th March is incidentally my birthday. Malaviya Nair (Heroine) is born on the 4th of March. Naga Shourya (Hero) is born on the 22nd February. Kalyan Koduri (music director) is born on the 31st January. So there is a lot of coincidence around number 4 for us.

Tell us about the pairing of the film.

We signed Shourya first for the film. When I was looking for the right girl, I glossed over 200 profiles but couldn’t find the right face. I found my heroine after I went to “Yevade Subramanyam” audio function. She was doing a dance number with kids at the function. Her expressive face told me that she was the right person for the film. I found her with lot of life and vibrancy.

Is there any other common actors in this film like Hemanth?

Well Hemanth didn’t act in “Jabardast.” The only two actors common to the films are Thagubothu Ramesh and Dhanraj. Thagubothu Ramesh is playing the same role as Gautham, Software Engineer (as in AM). There was an opportunity to link both the climaxes of the two films and Thagubothu Ramesh is the perfect fit to that as he plays the same role in KV. This makes it unusual feat for a comedian to repeat his famous role in another film. When I asked Damu for repeating Gautam’s role, he said: Why not? People loved the climax of that film so it will be nice to have a 2-3 minute tribute to that film in KV.

It seems you invest a lot of your energies into the making of the music and lyrics.

I am basically a music buff and I listen to all kinds of music (except perhaps the heavy metal type). In my ancestral home, my grandpa used to play the cassette of “Shankarabharanam” till the tapes gave up. I used to listen to All India Radio songs, Chitrahaar and Chitralahairi songs always. Anything possible in the 80s I listened to – classical, instrumental, western, every kind. (Except Acid and other hard-rock music). I am always wired up with music whether in the car or by myself when I am not on the sets. I enjoy music so much that I know specifically what is the right music for my films. Melodies were part of my musical world. So I sit with my lyric writers and music composer and we bounce off each other with lot of inputs before the songs are composed. For KV’s music also, Kalyan (music), Bhopal (lyricist) and myself sat for many sessions to thrash out the right mix of music for each song. It is a fun process for me and the ultimate output is to get good music.

Most of the songs in your movies are situational…

Yes, I am not comfortable with all the dancing and prancing around. I believe that songs are a part of the story so they should take the story forward. There is a basic mechanism issue with me with all the song and dance about the music (laughs).

Kalyan always gets highlighted with the music in your films…

I feel Kalyan is a superstar in music, he is just lazy and gets satisfied with what he does. You need someone to push him and get more out of him. I do the pushing in my films. I have the liberty with him as a friend, and he takes equal liberties with me in giving advice on my writing and my screenplay.We have a very ego-free, honest relationship with each other and we keep pushing each other to give the best output. For Ala Modalaindi, I rejected 20 tunes before Kalyan gave me the best. But for Kalyana Vaibhogame, I have not rejected even one. This is because, we discussed a lot of things clearly about each song before we sat for composing.So this time, he himself worked out lot of tunes himself before he put them for clearance. He was reasonably sure of himself that the song would pass the test and only then he tabled it before me. Very happy to say, therefore, not a single tune was rejected. He gave fantastic tunes for this film and great music again. He is also comfortable with me more than other directors because he knows I don’t really act like a customer in a Saree Shop who typically says, “this is good , that is not good.” If I like something, he knows I will say okay.

And the lyrics…

Hundreds of lyrics get trashed before we keep what we want. Bhopal keeps writing and writing. To his credit, Kalyan and me really push him hard and many times we both don’t agree on one lyric so Bhupal is tested before the final output. He jokes, “Andariki Oka Mogudunte, Naaku iddarunnaaru.” We play squash ball with him before the best lyrics come out. Also the fact that he wrote the dialogues give Bhopal the grip over writing the most suitable lines in the lyrics that suit the situational songs. Once he knew the entire story of the film and the nuances, I am confident, he will crack the language of the film. Bhopal did an outstanding job as a writer and a lyricist. This is my third film with him as the writer. For KV, he took the maximum time for writing the songs – he took about 20-30 days for each song of the film.

How much do you write for your dialogues because they are so distinct..

Lakshmi Bhopal indeed writes the dialogues for my films but I do tweak them here and there. I always believe in on-the-spot improvisations in everything and dialogues are no exception.

Is there a Woody Allen influence in your films…

I will take it as a compliment if you say so. But more than me Srinivas Avasarala’s films have that touch. Whatever influence happens, happens at a subconscious level. Like people say, why all your films have weddings in them? It must have happened to me since age 5, since when I must had a blast at a wedding my mom took me to at age 5. But consciously, I don’t have any influences except that in my growing years, I always liked films with subtle and realistic humour. I have grown watching films by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Jandhyala – I warmed upto them more than regular films and their films were what I was always happy going back to. I used to watch commercial films but these films were relatable. So somewhere, you could relate to such kind of movies and it is this reliability that has come to define my films. That became my style.

Any future projects…

I am terrible at planning future projects. I am happy doing one film at a time.

You were hailed as the Small-Budget Movie Queen when your first movie got released. Do you see more competition now in that space?

I think it is an excellent and a healthy trend to see so many new directors testing new genres in small budget films. When content is king, cinema thrives. The audience will also like the quality of films when new variety comes up otherwise the audiences will get tired watching the same old stuff, formats. It is the small budget film makers like us who can dare to tell different stories because there are no expectations, no hero images to deal with. The challenge is to make a good story and present it in small budget and make it work. Of course, you have mountains to climb, as a small film-maker – marketing, release of the film but there is freedom in the writing part and the making part of the film. It is a fantastic trend to have so many directors try different things out and we still have so much to catch up. But Tamil and Malayalam film industries have pushed these frontiers long back. They surpassed us years ago. But better late than never.

Can we expect more films from you per year?

I am hoping I will start with making one film a year. Hope to reach target by next year!

Have you narrated any scripts to the A-list of Stars?

I love watching films of big stars like Mahesh and Pawan Kalyan. But I have not narrated any script to them so far. But I would love to once I write a script that puts them in different light than what their image projects. I should bring some value to the table as a director if I have them as my hero, otherwise, why should they act in my film? Hopefully it should happen.

How do you pick your subjects and where do you get your ideas from?

I am not a social person, I don’t attend film parties and celebrity launches. Cinema is a part of my life, it is not my life. I don’t need to carry the cinema tag in me everywhere because it will change me and I am not that sort of a person. It only happens in cinema field that filmy crowds hang out with filmy people. You don’t find banking professionals hanging out with bankers all the time. Cinema is a profession and I will love to keep it that way. My bunch of friends are all my school and college buddies – they keep me grounded and level-headed. I touch my reality every day. I stay away from cinema circuit because I have nothing to contribute there. I love to be with normal people and thats where I get my energy and ideas from.

Is there a fleeting cameo in this movie as well?

Incidentally yes, there is. You will again see me climbing down the stairs! An eerie coincidence to AM.

Is there a star like Sneha Ullal doing a special song too?

There is no item girl in whatever sense you meant but there is a cameo by a girl called Pearl Mane in the film.