The writer-producer-director speaks...
We started the shoot on June 03, 1995 and completed it in three schedules spanning over a total of 105 working days. We wrapped up the shooting by the end of the October 1995. The house of Raja Rajeswari (Rohini Hattangadi) is the Government Guest House at Gandipet (now Golkonda Resort). The house of Harischandra Prasad (Kota Srinivas Rao) is the farmhouse at Nanakramguda owned by Sri K. Srinivasa Rao - that's where we shot the sequences involving the grandfathers farm. He generously gave his location free of cost. Ramesh Aravind's house was the rented one we were living in. We re-designed the living room and childrens bedroom for the shoot, while we moved to another house. That house is now turned to a gym. The whole forest sequence of the climax (shown in the Ek dO teen... song) was done in a tiny 1-2 acre land of Annapurna Studios.
...Sudhakar was a pain in the neck from the middle of the second schedule. Although we went all the way to Tenali for one scene, he didn't even stay through the whole shoot there and left to Chennai to see his 3-months old son. We had to let him go and shoot three shots with a production boy. He didn't dub for that scene either! We called Venumadhav to do it as he was a good mimicry artist, but that didn't work out, and we finally got someone in Chennai to do that part.
My original choice for Brahmanandam's role was Late Nagesh gaaru, as I was an ardent fan of his. We even paid him an advance of Rs. 10,000, but he was unwell at that time and I also felt that he might look too old for that role. Thus, we forfeited the advance and signed Bramhanandam. Though most people used him for comedy roles, I felt he could do justice for sentiment roles too. And, he did a good job, definitely.
The lyrics had to be liberally peppered with English as children in the social strata that we portrayed speak that way. Some of the lead lines were given by me along with the situation: "I'm a very good girl" and "My father is a Tiger", for example. Keeravani gaaru had taken some deeksha at that time and was not doing any films for two months then. At the same time, I met Sri who was doing two films for Ramgopal Varma (Anaganagaa Oka Roju and Gaayam). I liked his songs and asked him to work for this film. His music brought my dream to life. He is incredibly talented. For the seven situations in the story he gave me just seven tunes! They were so good that I didnt ask for an alternative. But just before recording he hummed another tune for Adagalanundi oka doubt ni as he himself was not satisfied with what I had okayed. And the second one was better; so we recorded that. Why he didnt achieve the success he deserved remains a mystery to me. He had three 100 day films in a row - Anaganaga Oka Roju, Ammoru, and Little soldiers. May be producers were disconcerted by his timings; he worked late nights and got up at noon. He also had a forthright manner which doesnt gel with people who prefer butter.
...Actually, Sree Ratna Prasad gaaru was supposed to produce the film. He was there when the final draft of the story was done and the songs were composed, but he had to back off from production due to some personal reasons, and thus I turned producer. Late D.V. Narasaraju gaaru heard the story and gave some helpful suggestions. He spent a lot of time with me and, hopefully, I picked up a few precious drops from that ocean of screen-writing knowledge! ...Venkat Akkineni was senior to me by one year at school (Hyderabad Public School), but I lost touch with him after that. I met him about 20 years later through Ramgopal Varma during the making of Shiva, when Ramu wanted me to do some ad designs for the film. When I ventured to produce Little Soldiers on my own after the original producer walked out, Venkat suggested that I use his name to facilitate things. As I was totally new to the industry and virtually unknown to people, he felt that his name would open some doors, and it did! He also deputed one of his studio executives as Production Executive for the film and offered his unit and equipment (lights, camera, etc.). The film's budget came to about Rs. 1.05 crore back then; the film was also dubbed in Hindi and Tamil. Surprisingly, both remain unreleased.
After completing the editing, dubbing and re-recording we started the final process of synching the sound, and got a rude shock. All the seven songs were out of synch. There was some inexplicable error while dumping the songs from the studio to the Nagara, the tape recorder used for recording dialogue on sets and to playback songs for shooting. And we had choreographed the songs in synch with that tape. There was no way we could reshoot all the songs. So with the help of digital technology, we stretched or compressed each song bar by bar to fit the image! May be a trained ear can find out the difference between the sound in the audio cassette and the movie.
Working with a three-year old is not difficult, its impossible. Try to make a child do simple things like, Come here, Go there, Give aunty a kiss, in day to day life for 5 minutes. Shell ignore you royally. Now imagine making her act, say memorised dialogue, and emote to strange situations she has never faced in real life! All this for an extended 5 month period. You are talking of unfathomable stupidness and unreal expectations. Kavya was present in a total of 55 scenes in the film, and none of them were shot in one go! Almost all of her scenes were shot in three different schedules! We ensured strict care over continuity and thus the audience did not feel this on the screen; there is a lapse or two though. We used to get ready for shoot at 7 a.m. everyday and wait for Kavya. To get her into the mood Rasool or Urmila would do jigsaw puzzles with her. A visitor on the sets would find 70 adults and one boy (Aditya) playing with a 3 year-old girl. Finally, we had completed all her scenes but one.
She had refused from day one to do the after-shave lotion scene where Aditya has a bruised knee and she punches the wound with her finger to test if it really hurts him. The make-up man, Chandra, did such a good job that she steadfastly refused to touch the wound however much we tried. I was desperate - without that shot, the scene would lose its punch! As a last ditch effort, I started playing with Aditya. I told Kavya that Aditya was actually a tape recorder and that his wound was a play/pause button. Aditya took the cue and he would start singing when I pressed the button and stop when I pressed it again. We kept repeating this dumb act till I thought we were only fooling ourselves and not wise Kavya. Then, miracle of miracles, she fell for it! She too started pressing the button and touched the wound that she had avoided for four months! We got the blessed shot. It was around then that Ramesh Aravind suggested that we should write a book, A 100 tips on how to make a film with a 3 year-old. And after it was sold out, we should write another one, A 100 reasons why not to make a film with a 3 year-old.
...Little Soldiers was released in 19 centers, and it ran more than 100 days in 4 centers. At Srinivasa 35 mm in Hyderabad, the film ran for 145 days. I was asked by the theater management to pay the theater a weeks rent if I wanted to keep it until the 150th day, since the film ran into a deficit on the 145th day. I told that I was not interested in a fake 150 days poster and they replaced Little soldiers with Ram Gopal Verma's Deyyam on the 146th day. ...Though the film ran for more than 100 days, we didn't make any profits on the film. Thus, in order to cope with the debts, we sold the VCD rights to Volga at that time, but they did a very shabby job on that! At present, the DVD rights are with KAD who are bringing out a quality product.
List of Awards:
Best Child Artiste, Male (Master Aditya)
Best Child Artiste, Female (Baby Kavya)
Best Character Actor (Kota Srinivasa Rao)
Best Screenplay (Gunnam Gangaraju)
Best Director on Debut (Gunnam Gangaraju)
Best Director (Gunnam Gangaraju)
Second Best Film
Article:
Sri Atluri
Acknowledgments: Gangaraju gaaru, Urmila gaaru, and Baladitya
Edited by:
NaChaKi
