Director Suneel Kumar Reddy has been producing and directing movies with Vizag as the backdrop for the past fifteen years. He now runs an edit suite and color studio in Visakhapatnam. While the world was confused in the past two years, Suneel Kumar Reddy had successfully finished writing stories and recently directed three of them. In a chat with Y.Sunita Chowdhary of Klapbordpost.com, the director expresses his intention of releasing his three films in the next three months. He shares the content of the three movies.
“#69, Samskar Colony will be hitting the theatres on March 4, Ma Nana Naxalite produced by Chadalavada Srinivasa Rao is about a father-son relationship and the next is Tihar college. I produced the last one. The first film has Esther as the main lead and it is about a happening in a colony in Visakhapatnam. Hashtag alludes to house number 69 and a story that revolves around Vaishali. From morning 6 am to 9 in the night, she is one personality and after that, she is another person. There are two sides to her,” he says. The director states that the male escort culture has been touched upon here with sensitivity. It has creeped into a place like Vishakapatnam and now it is a ready market. The high society women are enjoying the freedom and now it has become an organized racket. We see trafficking in one dimension but not the other but there is equal exploitation. No one can take society at its face value, you have to be careful. The scam which has been swept under the carpet is what Suneel Kumar wants to expose. He elaborates, “It is there in Hyderabad but now it has been happening rampantly in Guntur and Vijayawada. It is about why only guys should have fun..so the upper-middle class is also hiring the services. Social media has given them anonymity. It becomes an issue only when something goes against their interest and wish. This is a social reality that cannot be held in denial. Once you accept this exploitation, you will also begin to fight it. When you are weak, you will definitely be exploited.”
Ma Nana Naxalite has a 1995 background and Raghu Kunche played the character. The father-son relationship is at the forefront. Krishna Boorgula is the son in the story and has acted in the up-and-coming Koratala Siva film. The father spends all his life in the forest and wants to meet his son, the journey is the story. Suneel quips, “Society has become self-centric and our sensibilities are confined to social media. Society has started behaving as a spectator, earlier you were part of it, fighting an issue. They can play a part of it but now it is merely paying lip service. There is the hijacking of mindsets by social media giants. There is insecurity and you don’t want to be a minority in a majority. For this, money power is playing its part on social media influencers, they get paid to influence sales, products, ideas. The likes, viewership all matter; the figures of ABC circulation don’t matter anymore. The credibility doesn’t matter likewise, there is too much information and no one is credible in this farcical drama. Whoever serves faster grabs attention.” Coming back, will the father-son meet? There is money on his head, 25 lakhs worth, does someone betray him? Misdeeds are done in society for the sake of children. Everyone has a justification and none considers himself to be bad. Their right intention is perceived to be bad. The Naxalite’s point is that society is committing a crime on him. LB Sriram plays his ground and gives his opinion. He narrates both sides of the story without letting personal agenda peep into it. It is a tough call.
Welcome to Tihar College have all colleges behaving like a prison and its functionalities. It is about how we leave values in the race for ranks. “Tihar is synonymous with jail. Every residential college is like a jail and there is competition between them. All students are inmates to them and how faculty members run it. The exploitation in the name of education and the suicides of students are dealt with it. A tribal boy who comes to pursue education in the city realizes the hollowness of the education system and rejects it. I also finished a film on Valasa (immigrants) and there is Honey Trap”, says the director. As a filmmaker, he wants to exercise his opinion on the audience and he seeks undivided attention so he will be going for a theatre release. He states that the OTT is for the audience that we cannot reach but his first choice is the big screen. #69 has youth moments, and the father-son sentiment exudes hope. Every son will remember his father and every father will think of the gift he wants to give his son. The first film will release on March 4th and then the Chadalavada film in the summer. Welcome to Tihar College might come up when college releases.
