Y.Sunita Chowdhary
Ravi Anthony from Hyderabad became a production designer by chance in the Telugu film industry. A production designer is one who after discussions with the cinematographer and the director will develop an overall colour palette and work with the costume designer closely in terms of colours and styling and also oversee the post production. A production designer is responsible for the overall visual packaging of a film. Ravi was a student of Electronics and Communication engineering at Malla Reddy college but dropped out in the fourth year and came up with a music band. “Engineering seemed out of the place for me and I didn’t feel the vibe, luckily my parents were supportive. I started the band when I was in the third year and resolved to do something with music.
My uncle was a sound engineer, he would work for all the devotional songs but he hasn’t reached the movies. My brother plays guitar and my sister who is fond of music made me listen to all this music of international artists. I can say I was self taught, I like figuring out things on my own. I am also a curious person, if I am attracted to a certain skill, I like trying my hands on it. I had a friend called Aditya J, who worked for D for Dopidi and Go Go Gone as a second unit cinematographer. I would hang out with him a lot and learn a lot of film making. One day he spelled out his plan to make a music video, we had a small crew. We began making music videos, wrote lyrics for that song and Hand Icchindi struck a chord with many. Lot of people from the cinema circle shared it and despite that I was still figuring it out in my own space in the film industry,” he says.
He further speaks about how he understood what production design was, “Around that time, directors Raj and DK were wanting to shoot a web show. They were strong in the technical department and it was a beautiful place to be in with them, they gave me an opportunity. They took my friend Aditya’s word and roped me in. Aditya told me what art direction was all about and on the music videos we worked on, he gave me the credits as a production designer as well as additional lyric writer. On enquiring what the concept was about he said, it was about colours, costumes, shooting locations and props to be held etc which was what I did on the previous project. In the Telugu film industry, at that time we had art directors but not production designers whose job was to take that little extra responsibility for the overall look and feel of the film. The scene was changing fast and I began reading online and whenever I got an opportunity I was composing music.” At Raj and DK’s, Ravi met actor Siddhu Jonnalagadda. Siddhu did a role and had a discussion with Ravi. He wanted the former to do art direction for the film he was writing for and Ravi couldn’t be more happy. After a year, Ravi began working on Maa Vintha Gadha Vinuma.
Ravi narrates about how he got onto one project after the other organically. It wasn’t planned at all and at that time it seemed as if the universe wanted him to don the role of a production designer. He met director Ravikanth Perepu and they struck an immediate rapport on the design ideas. Ravikanth was working with Suresh Productions, a bigger production house and was meeting art directors. He had dates with those technicians and he asked Ravi if he could do that film too. “I heard the story and I loved it. He would narrate it now and then. I am picky about my films and I work with only those who I connect with ideologically. I come from a white collared employee family, my father was an ex Ranji manager and I have never been exposed directly or indirectly to siphoning money. I heard about it in production houses where people escalate bills. I formed a team who are trustworthy and loyal.” After working for two films, Ravi got a call from director Vimal Krishna who worked as a co director for Krishna and Leela. The new film is his debut project and I was given this assignment. Siddhu is the actor again and he told me the story.”
He adds, “What I believe is your first few films define what you are. The biggest challenge for me is to make a big commercial film. I believe in strong pre production and I give my staff what is required. I have the same team.” When he was in the 8th and 9th class, Ravi had a stammering issue and couldn’t pronounce a few words properly but one fine day when he heard Eminem’s rap, he was astounded by his work. It struck him that he should write, rap. He was Ravi’s basic inspiration to write and make a film. He reveals, “I am also pursuing music, made a Telugu rap song ‘manamantha robots ayinata’ and it is on Youtube. At the end of the day, I want to write and direct a film. All this is leading to that I started off as being part of a film and then eventually I started developing confidence and understanding every craft. Being on set is so much information.
I had the opportunity to be on the set and learn something. You have to work to learn and can’t just stand and observe. I have a few scripts ready and I am working on them. I want to write and direct. Vimal’s film is a dark comedy and a thriller. Rom coms are very beauty led, costumes need to be bright, sets got to be beautiful and actors need to look good. I did rom com, now it is a thriller. It is exciting as subjects get diverse. I fell in love with the process of film making and through this I explored myself as a filmmaker and to prove it I have to make a film. I listen to music, I make music, have knowledge of it. Art directors do their job and leave but I always spend time with the crew and give ideas when I could. A film consists of 24 crafts and I am still on the same ship and I want to master all this. People work as ADs to get experience. Given a chance I want to work as an AD and explore myself before I make that film. That is my approach to film making. I believe in individualism and that is what my song is also about.”
Ravi follows the Japanese concept of finding purpose and happiness in life. It is Ikigai. Lot of people do their job and are not happy with it. Ikigai helps you find life’s purpose, he says. “What you love doing, what the world needs, what people will pay you to do and what you are good at naturally. For me it is writing and rap. I am naturally good at direction and what the world needs is healing. From my side I could do a good movie, a rap song to motivate them. They will pay me to make a film. And it also has to be something that the world needs. I am a voracious reader of articles online. I like things short and I am not a guy who will pick up a 400 pages book and read. I read Sadhguru ‘s inner engineering, Ikigai and the modern version of the Bhagavad Gita. I use a lot of metaphors in my rap song, in one word I pack a lot of meanings. I have done a bit of cricket too and I keep venturing into different spaces.”
