playin a game..

hey... all... just playing a game... i want max comments on this one...
This game is not for the guys who know my film....
Lets play a game , a crazy guessing game...
WHAT COULD THE OPENING SCENE OF NAM BE LIKE?
LETS C......

OF SATYA and RAMUJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

One of those visits to my mom's cousins' place as a kid probably triggered off a filmmaking instinct in me. Those were the days of VHS casettes and ma mom's cousins had brought home a film called 'SHIVA' and were watching it with seriousness not typical of a telugu masala film audience. I didnt realise that day that the maker of this film would go on to me cinematic moments that would inspire me to become a filmmaker like him. 'Shivaa...shivaa shivaa....vaademi devudaa?" some cricket playing seniors of mine used to say all the time. I knew it was a line from that film ...a line spoken by the dreaded 'bhavani' ( late RAGHUVARAN) . I was fascinated by that line. RAMGOPALVERMA was unknown to me then.

Time passed by and then there was this another film which some uncle suggested was a must watch and so , me , my sister and cousins..all of us ran to the nearby theater to watch that film ..'KSHANA KSHANAM'... This time, I was so ...so...so blown by the movie ..its tough to describe it. To me it was what cinema was supposed to be. I knew this was just another film and and just another story...but the way the story was being brought to life was awesome... and that is when I realised that there was this guy called RAMGOPALVERMA..the director who made it possible. Soon, I realised that this was the same guy who had made SHIVA..

I saw SHIVA again. RAMGOPAL VERMA WAS MA FILMMAKING GOD. I used to eagerly watch out for his films... films like gulabi( dir: krishnavamsi) , rangeela, anaganaga oka roju, deyyam, started rolling in... and this guy could never go wrong!! I chiselled ma film making technique and screen writing style by watching his films...

And then came..the masterpiece... SATYA... I watched that film 57 times on last count. To me, probably, SATYA was the best that I could expect from the filmmaker who never tried to be 'holier than thou' in his storytelling. SATYA was real, honest and so simplistically made . Some say COMPANY was technically more advanced than SATYA but for me the opposite is true. COMPANY was intentionally stylised and the jump cut pattern and the soundtrack was very pop. But, SATYA had to be told in raw and real circumstances and the use of craft in that film was the stroke of a genius. The pull back shot to introduce the hero waking alone in a crowd in mumbai, the blast sound juxtaposed with the candid footage of the collapsed buildings...wow! The shot near the shore where both chakri and manoj stand back to camera and discuss their siuation... the scene on the terrace where chakri says 'happy birthday vidya'.. or the simple and haunting montage of 'baadalon se kaat kaatke'.... the scene where bhiku and gang are trying to get truth out of one guy and satya talks to vidya outside ...(check out SANDEEP CHOWTA's rr in dat scene)... the grand finale ..( the ganapati bappa frenzy..) and after all that a simple and true ending to a film story. Through out the film... not in a single frame do we see an insincere film maker .He just told us a story looking at us eye to eye and got up and left...!

That was RGV then.. and now he is RAMUJIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! RAMUJI and his brand of cinema now is definitely far superior than those bollywood kid films, but the point is ...technique is not everything. CONTNE AND TECHNIQUE must merge somewhere to make a great film. RAMUJI cinema either reeks of strong and unwanted technical skills or reeks of flimsy ideas that often dont get developed into strong scripts. Mayb, he is not able to see the whole film as one nowadays. Nyways, with SARKAR RAJ he showed me he stil has the same story telling capactiy that i saw of him in kshanakshanam or satya... and that is why i loved that film inspite of the bachchans who are generally very boring as a gang!

MY LIST OF RGVfilms( not RAMUJI films)in order of liking them

1)SATYA

2)SARKAR RAJ

3)KSHANA KSHANAM and DEYYAM

4)ANTHAM

5)RANGEELA

6)Anaganaga oka roju

7) Raatri

8) JUNGLE and so on....

RAMUJIIIIIII RAMUJII GO AWAY... COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY...

Elavo arjunaa!

Had been to the preview of the film Dheemaku. Arjun's Dheemaku. I think two songs , the 'kannagudde' sng and the adnan sami song are nice. Abt the rerecording, not convinced at all.

Same happened with yuga. He scored a super song with 'hrudaya hrudaya'.. but the rr was messed up. NAM AREA , I am sure will be a break in the right direction for ARJUN.

I have known him as a friend for the past seven years or so and have seen him evolve as a music director. There were times when as soon as he used to compose something new , he used to make me listen to it.Almost every time, I used to say' let this be in ma film'. He used to smile in his own humble way.

He is genuinely talented not just as a music director should be, bt also cares a lot for good scripts and good cinema. The way he listens to a story, the way he reacts to it is all very spontaneous .

The 'bala krishna..balamurali krishna' rr part was the only interesting part of Dhimaku's rr though. And I would not blame ARJUN for the same.

Nowadays, he is all over the place like a rash. 'PATRE LOVES PADMA', 'BIRUGAALI', SLUMBAALA, NAM AREA, OMG!! I wonder how he works round the clock...non stop.

Nyways, the concern is ..I dont wanna c a burnout!

VIRAL BOSS!

was not keepin well all the time...the doc says do not go out for three or four more days...its the viral... so no blogs...

I make SOAP!

That is me with ma ace cinematographer Ashok Cashyap and my Choreographer Anand....
what A fun!!!!

If someone asks me what I do for a living.. next time, I will say 'I make soap'.

Some filmmakers have a problem with their film being called a 'product' as opposed to something more artistic or technical.

FILM MAKING IS LIKE SELLING SOAP. You make a film and you sell it. You make a soap cake and you sell it. The point here is... you cannot sell the idea of making a brand of soap to a customer just as you cannot sell the idea of making a film to the audience. If I say 'I will make that film...I will make this film...etc etc'... there is no point in it. YOU only have to make the film and then see if it works or not with the audience.

Many a time in the past, I have come across producers who have asked me for a narration of a film story . After a narration they would say 'its nice but will it be saleable?" My answer or at least ma thought then would be 'BOSS...how will u know if it is saleable or not unless you make the film?". So, I think the best producer is that guy who is willing to allow you to make the soap instead of asking how its fragrance would be or how long lasting it would be.

Today, as a result of some positive interest about the film... or the idea that the film has shaped up good , I meet a lot of people who are willing or showing interest in allowing me to make ma soap. So , now I have started making soap...! HOPE MA BRAND OF SOAP WORKS..

Is it real? Is it not?

This time when I was in Mysore shooting for NAOD , there was this particular scene that I was shooting with Pratap , Mandya Ramesh and Anish .

When the actors came on to the set ,to the same place where we had started off shooting their scenes it was not as if they had come there to act. Looking at them , to me it was almost as if these guys lived there and I came in to just check as to what these guys are doing.

The characters of Mandya Ramesh,Pratap and Anish are so etched in ma mind, i think twil take me a lifetime to get out of their lives. The feel of the area, the ease with which these guys acted out that scene ... all this gave me a feeling of IS IT REAL ? IS IT NOT?

Nyways, now to some freaky news...

this time while i was shooting , i was so disappointed that the scenes were all over and done with but there still was so much to say through these characters of NAM AREALONDINA. So, quickly I decided and came to the conclusion that we have to do a part 2 of the same film.

Soon, we should be announcing the PART 2 plan of the film. LET THESE CHARACTERS LIVE ON FOR EVER... WATCH OUT FOR NAOD PART 2

I am back!

Hi there ,
after one terrific and exciting schedule at mysore am done with the film shoot and back in bangi. This is a tired me posting a hi...