Y.Sunita Chowdhary
Pradip B Atluri belongs to the new generation of film makers who hasn’t only worked as an AD for very few films initially but is also knowledgeable in terms of cinema, has his own style and understands what the audience wants. He has many scripts belonging to many genres and all of them have some unique quality that sells. In a chat with Klapboardpost.com, Pradip B Atluri says his writing revolves around today’s generation and caters to the youth. “This teen age genre is important, in India we hardly get to see teen films. It is that age, where we witness maximum problems, drama and extremities happening. By the time you are 24, you are actually sorted. I want to explore this phase in the youth and also break genres.” The writer-director’s official debut film is ready but it appears, the release will be put off due to the prevailing pandemic. Nevertheless, he says with an air of positivity that no matter the duration of the delay, the story “Kotthaga Rekkalocchana” will be fresh and the cast with the natural performances will capture the imagination of the audiences.
Pradip is based out of Mumbai and had worked for films and web series in Bollywood. How did his debut directorial happen in Hyderabad and what is the them of the film? He recollects, “I connected with my friend and EP (Raghavendra Anna) of Kotthagga Rekkalocchana and cinematographer Anish Kumar after ten years. We were room mates. Raghav called me one fine day and we got talking. I pitched this story and the producer Lagadapati Sridhar liked it. We were on board in November and Anish joined us. We shot 12 days of shoot, had to stop in March and resumed in August, wrapped it up in November. I wanted to direct for a long time but the scene here is different, people take a long time to trust you. The producer is happy with the work. I also wrote my dialogues and sat with the guys who were doing the Telugu dialogues. I told them to remember the age they were targeting and stressed on avoiding big dialogues. It came out really nice. I believe, in film making they are three things that are important viz., script, acting. and visuals. If the performance is not good the film fails. If visual is not good acting fails. I am blessed I made my living through writing and not by doing odd jobs. I am glad, I had a good producer and casting wise I had the freedom to choose people and mould them. Vikram is so natural. he has done 9 films so far. Soumika is a find, her expressions are too good. After auditioning, we had a 21 day workshop. This is a proper teen comedy, one night film. The theme of the film is a instant gratification. Everyone wants everything fast. and in an instant manner. the idea is what about love? Is it hook up or love? For concepts like career and love, there is no instant gratification and we need to give it time and love. We did have a debate about the title and if it is apt for the script. The producer explained Kottaga Rekkalochana is perfect because teens are getting into older self, they are getting wings. The title is from a hit song already and the target audience is 18 to 26. He said if we have a proper Telugu title, there is a likelihood of drawing the 35 year groups too to the theatre. I am okay with it, I am more creative when it comes to film making. I am not into promotions. The producer knows this aspect well and he has done great because he had done films earlier.”
Cinematographer Anish has reportedly done amazing work. His earlier works were Rangoon in Tamil and Anando Brahma in Telugu. Also Silly Fellows and a Kannada film. The collaboration worked. Right now Pradip is looking for younger producers who are willing to take risk and produce out of the box subjects. He quips, “I am not into the old school, I like doing new stuff and the producer gave us complete freedom. I don’t want to make big budget films that is something like 40 crore. My budget is according to the script. I can’t write commercial films, my films are for youngsters. Even if there is a female character in the story, it will be very strong. Here, one is the heroine, one is a lesbian and one a rebel.” We ask Pradip how he picked up a flair for writing and he shares, “I was never interested in studies till the third standard. To add to my woes, I was bad at Math and I had problem with writing. I was good at drawing and developed a habit of narrating stories which I think I inherited from my granny. Every two years when I would visit my native place near Gudivada ( I was born & brought up in Mumbai), granny would entertain me with her stories. Speaking Telugu is a problem but I do understand. I began working in an ad agency as a copy writer and one day I was told my dad that actor Pundarikakshaiyya was my grandfather’s brother. So in a way there is a connection to film in the family.”
Pradip watched a lot of Telugu and Hindi cinema before moved to Canada, he wanted to study film making. He says direction is more technical than writing. Once he saw a film being made, he realised this is where his passion lay and film indeed is a culmination of everything he wanted to do. Earlier, he tried everything in arts, a little bit of this and that but didn’t know what to pick to pursue a career. He majorly focusing on writing and direction and loved the latter. Pradip was sure about one thing, he wanted to learn every aspect of film making but not on the sets of Bollywood as an AD. “Art has to come from inside, copying art doesn’t work. I began writing. Here people said my films were ahead of time and it wont work commercially. I began pitching stories in 2012 or 13 and now my content is the reality of the world. I had to unlearn a lot of things and began writing. I divided my approach in two ways. I wrote what I wanted and if someone told me they had a story and I need to develop it, I would do it for them. Ultimately people always said it was a well written script. I always go with a bound script. I have seen people write while they are at the shoot, I understand spontaneity but I guess we need to have confidence in the script and only then it goes to another level. I have 15 scripts ready right now, I have been writing for 7 years. If I am not directing it, I have a problem, the whole vision changes when someone else wields the megaphone. I am a writer-director. Direction a lot of people can’t do, it is more technical. Anyone can be a writer.”
