Raj Pippala

When I was speaking to Sumanth a year go, he mentioned that his next film was going to be under the direction of Raj Pippalla. When I asked him who he was, Sumanth said that Raj was an ad film maker and did some ads in the US too, which was kind of interesting. Now, their combo film Boni is completed and is getting ready for release. I caught up with him late one night, as that's the only time possible for a chat, and interviewed him for TeluguCinema.Com.

Sri: A formal and routine question at the beginning - Tell me about your background.
Raj: My father Pippalla Suryaprakash Rao gaaru is a writer - a prolific writer in the 80's - and my mother Prabhavathi gaaru is a Veena artist. My sister Vaani is a classical dancer too. With such a familial affiliation to arts, I became interested in all art in general and it continued as I grew up.

Sri: So, a part of your remuneration should go to all of them, I think!
Raj: (Laughs) I guess so.

Sri: I heard you were an ad film maker in the USA. How did that happen?
Raj: Though I did my graduation and post graduation there, I used to have a zeal for arts right from my college days. I used to do plays and music shows when I was in the college, and even worked as DJ then. I liked it a lot too, and with the money I earned thus, I started doing small ads - sort of playing with it to know for myself the art of telling a small story effectively in 30 seconds.

Sri: What technologies did you use? Photoshop? Real short films?
Raj: Not mere Photoshop editing but real short films, in fact. I hired a camera from a local store and did my shooting in vacant houses and so on.

Sri: I thought most advertising firms are located in big cities on the east and west coasts of the USA, such as LA, NY etc....
Raj: That's true to some extent. Most of the big firms are in LA and NY indeed, but every place has its share of local advertising firms. One just needs to work on that and from there one can grow bigger.

Sri: So, what did you do?
Raj: What I did was some mock advertising for local business units and a couple of others on my own, approached a local advertising firm, and showed my work to them.

Sri: But, you're an engineer by profession. How does it all fit?
Raj: True, but I like this job, and I am thus determined to work on such things and went ahead and did it.