Nandini Reddy

Sri: What made you to come to film industry?
Nandini: It was a pure accident! I never had any intention to come into films. I was dillydallying about several career options before I zeroed in on visual media - with an intention to make ads, I joined Gunnam Gangaraju gaari Just Yellow team at the time of making of Little Soldiers. I worked on the team with Rasool and even dubbed for the kid in the film. While working for that film, I was drawn to film-making like fish is drawn to water...

Sri: Why did you want to get into the male-dominated film industry in the first place?
Nandini: There are some proven femlade directors already, and it's proved time and again that women can be successful here as directors also, and ...I am here! It should have been a lot toughter when Vijayanirmala gaaru entered the field as a director, with people saying all sorts of things and expressing doubts on her caliber as a director or wondering why she wants to try something else when she has her career as a heroine anyway. Now, crossing all hurdles, she even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the woman director who has directed the most number of films in the world! B. Jaya made her mark similarly too. Compared to them, my road was less harder. Though they were not my role models, I definitely look up to them. As you said, it is hard, surely... but then it does not mean that we cannot achieve! ...There's Anjana Ali Khan, who is currently directing Gowtham Menon's first production with Nani. She treads the same waters as I do, and we used to support each other in many ways, being on the same road...

Sri: How did you join Krissnavamsi?
Nandini: It was Rasool who took me to Krissnavamsi at a time when he was working for the director for his debut film Gulabi. Krissnavamsi, however, did not encourage the idea of having a lady as an assistant director as he felt that late-night work schedules, or even overnight stays, are inconveniences of the profession. He thus refused, but Ramyakrishna pressed on to take me in, when he was working for Chandra Lekha, because she felt it's unfair. Finally, I joined him and stayed on until he worked for Shakti (Hindi version of Anthahpuram) and Khadgam.

Sri: Oh, but then Khadgam was a long time ago! What did you do between then and now?
Nandini: While doing for Shakti, Karishma Kapoor wanted to do work on a film like the Hollywood flick My Best Friend's Wedding, and I narrated some scenes to her depicting how it can be adapted to the Indian screen. She was very impressed and asked me to develop a complete script. I nearly completed everything when her dress designer Manish Malhotra brought the news that Yash Chopra was making a film on the same lines (made as Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi) and approached him for the position of costume designer. Thus, we dropped that project, and I lost another Hindi project in the last minute for another reason. I then came back to Telugu...

Sri: Even then, you seem to have taken a long time in Telugu...
Nandini: Oh, that's because some projects went cold in the last minute in Telugu too. Examples include a project for Suresh Productions and another for Raghavendra Rao gaaru...

Sri: Did you not get frustrated in the whole ordeal?
Nandini: Sometimes yes, it feels so bad when projects that are almost finalized suddenly go out of hands for reasons beyond one's control. However, everytime something like that happened, my will power became stronger and so did my urge to show the world that I can do it!

Sri: What kind of support did you have?
Nandini: My mother always gave me a lot of support. When people objected my going into the direction department, it was my mother who supported me and she has always been there for me whenever I needed.

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