Vijay Kumar Kalivarapu will be testing his luck on May 6th, his debut film Jayamma Panchayati will have a theatrical release. Like other aspiring directors, he too wanted to make a film with a star but it isn’t easy stuff so he planned to start small initially, and didn’t think of a woman centric film as such. He was instead inspired to write a story on a woman who triggered an incident and that was etched in his memory. Vijay Kumar tells Y.Sunita Chowdhary of Klapboardpost.com that all the incidents are real but he has dramatised most of them and has partly fictionalised them. Each name, each person and location in Srikakulam is very familiar to him.
“Our village is very beautiful, it is set against the eastern ghats, there is a village with a shiva temple. If you see the promos, you’ll watch this place. It is done in sync sound, no dubbing. At Least 70 people are local theatre artists and most of them don’t know what cinema is. Few of them never dreamt of acting in a film. I have painstakingly picked, trained and got them ready for the camera to fit into the particular characters. Suma has practised the slang for two months. She can grab any dialect easily provided you explain to her,” he says. True, the Malayali girl has made the Telugu States her home and is more a Telugu person than any local born and brought up here. Also years of anchoring on television and stage, has helped her gain mastery of the language and it goes without saying that spontaneity and hilarity is her forte.
Vijay Kumar says that his target is to start small with newcomers and stream it on OTT. If he gets some fame with this, next plan is to make a film for the theatre. Big people in my first film was never his idea because, one it means budget issues, next he wouldn’t have the same freedom that he would enjoy with newcomers. The cast and crew are locals and they never have date problems. He comments, “Suma has freshness and reflects Srikakulam. She also has an identity like we discussed and can instantly take the film to the market. The publicity was planned and it reached everyone, and was promoted by stars too. The industry has supported us ..in fact Suma a lot. When Suma was initially thought of as a choice, I was apprehensive of sabotaging her image. She never did films after her debut film, and it was a responsibility to give her a good script that will enhance her image. I was keen not to exploit her for commercial purposes and do justice for roping her in. I couldnt register her image but later on I was in sync with it. She was locked in the team for two days.”
He adds, “There was a woman in our village (Jaymama is a fictional person) who triggered my thought process. I was doing my graduation then and wondered if there will be women like this in the society. Like I said I didn’t imagine her as Jayamma but now after the completion of the film, I can’t imagine the film without Suma. I just cannot visualise anyone else other than her as Jayamma. The story is a satirical comedy village drama. A problem arises in the village and it gets linked to others lives, it disturbs many lives. That creates humour. Vulgar dialogues in the promo? A film has to be real, the rawness and rustic quality has to emanate. Though we belong to a class section, we do use such language that comes out of frustration. We should accept reality and the director should have the liberty to bring the story closer to reality.”
Keeravani liked the script and gave us music, there was no discussion of money. B. Prakash Rao is the producer and is happy with the output. About the shooting, Vijay observes, “Shootings are very rare in Peddakothapally. It is a strange thing to them and they came in crowds but after a few days they got bored and never came to us. They were probably exasperated by the takes and retakes. We shot for 55 days. We all are film lovers, we keep watching and appreciating stories from other languages and wonder why cant come up with such content. This film will keep a check to that. I have made many short films, ad films and won many national awards. This is my debut and I am assisted by a DoP Anush who worked for PS Vinod. I wanted to rope in a lot of freshers so I picked all the Srikakulam people. Our costume designer, producer, art director and the entire cast is from Srikakulam. Except for Suma and DoP all are from this place.”
