Raja Vikramarka starring Kartikeya is Sri Saripalli’s debut film. He had done masters in film making in Universal Studios and when back in India, he began working with VV Vinayak. Sri hails from Vijayawada and states that his first love is films and film making always piqued his interest. After passing out from Koneru Lakshmaiah college of engineering, he left to the US to pursue a two year course in film making. He found it hectic but not strenuous. He says, “I loved the entire phase and enjoyed every day in the class. If fifty percent is academics the other fifty percent is application of knowledge on the sets. You get hands-on experience and there is networking which is why as soon as I wound up my course, I began working on VV Vinayak’s film.”
In a chat with Y.Sunita Chowdhary of Klapboardpost.com, he further says, “People did ask me to direct a film as soon as I was in Hyderabad but I wasn’t this confident. I never implemented a project of such a vast scale. Vinayak’s projects helped me expand my horizon, his crew is never less than 200 people. Handling the set and controlling the people is also an art and that is what I picked up from there. I have been here for 22 years, it isn’t as if I have never worked with a film crew but the fact is..the study of film and film direction taught me not just filmmaking but people’s management, control. I have worked on Nayak and Alludu Seenu too.”
The idea of Raja Vikramarka germinated during the making of Alludu Seenu and he decided to go with it. Having worked with VV Vinayak, does he find a subconscious influence of ‘mass direction’ on him? He says, “I treat my first film as a very subjective and personal thing. Subconsciously the effect of Vinayak might be there but I feel filmmaking is a reflection of your perspective of life. When I moved to India, I decided I want to work with new age film makers. I have learnt how to work on huge sets and people. I treat it as an opportunity and as paid learning.”
Sri tells us about a man who led him to carve an interesting character in his up and coming film Raja Vikramarka. “I was living in an apartment close to CBI colony, near Praja Rajyam office. I noticed a 24 year old slim, young man who I presumed was a low level officer. I am sure he would have faced an identity crisis. I would see him from my window every day and learnt that he was a main guy in the CBI office, JD lakshminarayana’s team. The young man looked like an ordinary person. In the film too, he is a simple ordinary guy handling a great job. I spaced out his character and built on it. In the film, the character plays a fresh recruit – NIA officer who is still learning and getting used to the nuances of his job, he accidentally opens fire while tearing a packet of chips in his senior officer’s presence. Tanikella Bharani who is the officer is apparently interrogating a criminal. The hero has a loaded gun and while interrogation, by mistake the man dies after revealing only half of the information. It is about a wanted man who from the past 25 years was a weapons dealer and now dies in interrogation. He gets killed by the hero and the remaining part of the film is yet to be known.”
Sri adds that about the protagonist, “Many people would love to do their job and they don’t enjoy public attention. It is a simple and straight film. Tanya Ravichandran is the heroine, she plays a classical dancer. Kartikeya is great to work with. The story happens in Hyderabad, it is going to be entertaining and will keep you engrossed. I wrote the story and screenplay and directed it. Music is by Prashanth Vihari and PC Mouli is the cinematographer (Diwakar Mani’s associate), a newcomer. Sudhakar of Life Is Beautiful is doing a special role in the film. Movie is due for release in October.”
