Movies : Movie Tidbits : Saikiran Adavi on casting of 'Vinayakudu'

Saikiran Adivi, who made debut with Vinayakudu, writes about the making of the film and what made you to cast Krishnudu, Sonia, Poonam and others for the main roles. Read on..

Casting and Making

Casting for a subject like Vinayakaudu was a bit difficult task, since I needed a fat guy who should look very cute, fat and should perform very well. Picking such a guy was not that easy for me.

KRISHNUDU {FAT GUY}

One day when I was working for Happy days, my friend Anand Ravi called me up and said, Krishnudu is perfect for big fat love story, when I was on my way to the city from the shooting spot. I knew that Ravi has perfect vision, when I returned to the location I saw Krishnudu’s visuals and was very much impressed with his appearance and performance. I started observing his performing skills after that instance and I felt he is perfect for the role. Now I feel pretty happy and surprised looking at the audience's response in the theatre.

SONIA {GIRL OPPOSITE FAT GUY}

Infact I was already thinking about Sonia for the girl opposite the fat guy when I started thinking about Krishnudu. I took their photographs and placed them next to each other in a laptop and felt it’s a perfect pair. One month later I narrated the story to Krishnudu and He was pretty much impressed with the subject. It took few months for me to start the pre-production work. In the meanwhile Sonia went abroad and return home, one day I called up Sonia, narrated the subject to her, she felt it’s a very cool subject and accepted right away.

POONAM KAUR {SECOND HEROINE}

Then it was a pretty tough job to select the remaining cast, Poonam was impressed with the subject and was ready to do the sandy character but she was not prepared to do the kissing scene. Atlast I convinced her to take it as a challenge. Infact I wanted a very fair active trendy looking girl for sandy’s character. I felt poonam was perfect for that character. I think people now feel surprised looking at poonam’s appearance in the film. Couple of directors told me that they never expected Poonam to be so trendy.

SURYA TEJ {SECOND HERO}

Surya Tej came for 'Happy Days' auditions. When Surya Tej came to my office for first time I was not impressed with his performance and rejected him, later after several auditions and his determination, he made me convinced to accept. I feel he did a good job. People are enjoying his performance very well in the theatres.

OTHER CHARACTERS

Adarsh worked for 'Happy Days and I felt he is perfect for Ananth Naidu’s role when I wrote the character. Mr.Premkumar, my producer, was a bit passionate about acting, I wanted to give him a decent character but was not sure where will he fiit in. I thought of a boss character who doesn’t have any expression on his face and how the staff reacts looking at him was the funniest part. I think the fun worked out very well with him.

I wanted few people in the staff should have international look that is the reason why I preferred Rachana {the african girl}. She was my colleague when I was working with Sekhar Kammula, she was into art department and mainly she speaks telugu very well which made me write couple of dialogues especially for her. I think it gave an international look to the company where both Kalpana and Karthik work.

PARENTS

For the parents characters I wanted a very natural look. I had asthma attacks at the time of preproduction. I was forced to meet the concerned doctor in Apollo hospital in Jubilee Hills. I met Dr. Sailaja madam in the hospital. She was surprised when I offered her the mother’s role in my film. At last I convinced her to do the role. I made her dub her original voice which gave a very natural feel in the theatre. I know Mr. Srinivas for several years who did father’s role in the film. He was a very natural performer and i preferred him for the character.

SISTER {KARTHIK’S SISTER}

The moment I thought of casting a very good looking sister’s character I couldnt think of any one else than Satya Krishnan. It was not that hard for me to convince her as we both worked together for Anand. I think the sentiment worked out very well.

KIDS {APARTMENTS KIDS}

It was hard work, patience and lots of lollies to give away to make the kids act. They have been fabulous and created the noise and energy required. Only mittu was cast after audition and the rest where picked up at the location (same apartments).

Looking back at making of Vinayakaudu has been wonderful - sometimes frustrating and a great learning curve too.