Y.Sunita Chowdhary
Director Sateesh who was a journalist working for a popular newspaper is making his debut as a director soon. This is happening after a ten year struggle of narrating stories, taking advances and his stories not moving forward and a lot of interference from people in his script. “I feared that I would miss my signature and resolved to work with new people and a concept based cinema. As I was a journalist, I wanted to choose a problem that is prevalent in society. Five years back when I visited Warangal, I happened to explore a village that is remote and has an ancient temple. I was buying flowers and other stuff for the deity and I couldn’t find roses anywhere. On enquiring I learnt that just not roses, any object to do with love or its symbols is never made available in that area. The temple priest told me the story for the same and it made a huge impact on me,” says Sateesh
He narrates a real incident that happened in that village and it is about a girl who elopes on her wedding day and both, the boy and girl are found at the railway station. The youth is caught, he is tied upside down and hung from a rope, while the girl is made to hold the rope ends. If she lets the rope loose, her lover is sure to drop dead. He will survive as long as she holds him. That was the decision taken by the village head, either ways the young man is sure to lose his life. The girl apparently refused the alliance bought by her parents and when she escaped from the house, her mother died out of shock. The lover obviously is killed and the decision has been taken because such elopement took place earlier in three or four places. This was to instil a fear psychosis and teach a lesson to such people. Sateesh adds, “The boy hangs on the rope just as a pot is hung from a height on Krishnashtami and the people climb on top of the other to aim and break the pot. The honour killing takes place at the North of the village. Since this is a real incident and also Uttarana is the last stage in life, means a graveyard…I felt it was apt for the story.”
It is a love story, mixed with contemporary issues and has a Telangana backdrop. The shoot got wrapped up in February. Sateesh says entertainment doesn’t mean comedy alone and entertainment actually means to engage people and touch them with any kind of emotion. This isn’t an entirely sad or a melancholic story, it has its moments of fun and frolic and the twists and turns happen organically. The cast comprises newcomers and have support from experienced character artistes. At no point in this film, reference to caste is taken place. There can’t be a greater bond than that of a parent and child but that doesn’t mean that parents can own the child. It isn’t fair for them to expect the children to tow their line and do what they say always as times are changing and there is a huge generation gap. Having said that, we agree that each person is right in his own way and the differences can be sorted out if both the parties arrive at an understanding and discuss issues.
Is the film like Sairaat? Sateesh says if honour killing is the issue, the rest of the things that lead to it varies. If the girl in the house falls in love with an outsider, the village believes that the parents’ love is more important. In the movie Colour Photo, the issue is colour, in Sairaat it is a different reason. The shooting days came up to 48 to 50 and was shot in Warangal surroundings, especially some important scenes which required the Telangana arch, the filmmaker put up a replica set as it holds historical significance. They opted for fresh faces because the director didn’t want them to come with a baggage of their old films and roles. “Everyone knows a film mostly has a happy ending but what makes the process different is the drive, how we convince and engage the audience.
That for us is success. We generally show a lie as the truth to the audience in a colourful, convincing format. The audience already is in the know of the story because of its hype and publicity. The first look, trailers, music, posters all help the people in the guessing game. Once the film releases, people lack their own judgement. They parrot the lines that others have to say. If ten people say a film is good, the 11th person also says the same. I wanted to direct a film of my choice but my aim is to earn plaudits. I worked in the teams of Vamsi Paidipally, Venu Sreeram, Maruthi, Darling Sway, Kona Venkat etc. I had also worked for Rangasthalam. I am fond of Dl Raju’s emotional stories but execution wise I like Puri Jagan who writes and shoots films in a record number of less days. Because of my previous profession, I am used to working within deadlines. I also admire Sukumar who gives it all to the story. He listens to 100 versions and picks one but adds his own touch to that. Not all are meticulous like him.”
