Star Interviews
Chit Chat with Saikiran Adivi
By NaChaKi
Nov 6, 2009 - 7:59:09 AM

I met Saikiran Adivi at the premiere of his debut film Vinayakudu at Prasad's Multiplex in Hyderabad, when my friend and one of the film's two lyricists, Avinash, introduced me to him. He was affable and jovial, and had RELIEF written all over his face when I spoke to him after the show. He spoke exclusively to me and every other specially invited audience of the premiere and sought everyone's suggestions before the actual theatrical release of the film and trimmed it accordingly. Though I only spoke to him for less than 15 minutes, I understood how much he cared about his movies, and that he'd do anything in his reach sincerely to ensure that his movies please the audience. He was friendly, dedicated, patient, and clear in his approach and execution of the film as well as his interaction, I felt. Since then, I had been in touch with him through Orkut and exchanged scraps occasionally. Though he was busy as the producer-director of Village-lo Vinayakudu, he never missed replying to me whenever I wrote. After the release of Village-lo Vinayakudu and the positive talk it generated, I wanted to speak him over the phone to congratulate. He was the same friendly personality I met, and his replies were really honest too! Excerpts of the conversation are presented to TeluguCinema.Com visitors as an exclusive chitchat.

NaChaKi: Hello, Saikiran gaarU! Congratulations on winning Nandi Awards for your debut film Vinayakudu - as second best film and as the best debut director!
Saikiran Adivi: Thank you, thank you! (smiles) I wasn't having time to log on to Orkut and thus there was a delay in replying there...

NaChaKi: The best director of the year, Krish, was also a debutant. What's your comment? And, what's your comment on the Nandi Awards this year in general?
Saikiran Adivi: I expected Krish to win the Best Director Award this year. Who's the best debut director and who's the best director is a judgment made by the jury, and I do not intend to comment on their judgment! ...It's not uncommon or wrong that the Best Director Award could go to a debutant director. For example, Ram Gopal Verma created a whole new trend with his debut film Shiva in a way that no one else back then could think. Thus, Krish winning it this time is not very surprising, since Gamyam was a well-made movie. ...And, the jury made right choices too in all other awards this year. I am not saying this because I won the award (laughs) but that's what I observed.

NaChaKi: Well, yeah, this time there were not any major controversies about the awardee choices either!
Saikiran Adivi: True! Controversies generally arise when the judges make wrong choices. This time they didn't make any, I feel! I think all the judgements were genuine. Whatever and whoever that the general audience felt as being worthy of an award got it.

NaChaKi: Tell us about Village-lo Vinayakudu.
Saikiran Adivi: Some people are thinking this is also a love story like Vinayakudu. However, this film is a family drama with love element and is not a continuation of the previous film. When some people compared it to Vinayakudu subjectwise, I felt that not everyone realized that there's more family drama in the sequel - we captioned the posters "She told them everything... except that he's fat!" but I felt later that the family drama aspect was not established very well before the release of the film. The film is a visual treat like a good "Chandamama katha" where you want to read the story just looking at the story setting and the illustrations therein! And, it's a film that one can watch with one's entire family.

NaChaKi: What's your response to the comments that the film is similar to Meet the Parents. Some comments on our review even said that the film is a role-reversal of Aakaasamantha or a mixture of that film and Bommarillu...
Saikiran Adivi: I haven't seen Meet the Parents myself completely at one stretch. However, Mahi was the one who gave the subject and I know he watched Meet the Parents. It may thus be that the film has some level of influence at a subconscious level, but we didn't really get inspired based on that film or any other film. It's surely not a lift-off either, but I cannot rule out a subconscious influence. I in fact do have the influence of several movies I watched in the past...

NaChaKi: I remember that there were controversies about the title when Vinayakudu released. Did you have such issues this time too?
Saikiran Adivi: Not at all! Those who protested earlier might have not watched the film initially and they might have realized later that we didn't hurt any sentiments in the film. This film is also a neat film that doesn't hurt any sentiments.

NaChaKi: How was the opening report for the film? What's the response you got from various sections of audience?
Saikiran Adivi: The film's report I got was that it's a very good film. Everyone has the feeling of watching a good movie when walking ou of the theater. I got similar report from all over unanimously. The film has the potential to reach a very good range if we can promote it well and if the word of mouth publicity also spreads around. I am confident that no audience will be disappointed with the film. It wouldn't strike anyone as a badly made film.

Sekhar Kammula's school generally caters to NRI audiences, they say. What's your comment? What was their response to this film?
Saikiran Adivi: It was good. ...There's no particular set of audience called "NRI audience", I feel. Those people outside India may have a feeling that they miss India. It's a feeling like coming home for a festival when they watch such films with the staunchly Indian locales and culture. It's a happy reminder of their sweet memories. ...I never traveled outside India and so I don't know how well I can understand their feelings but Sekhar Kammula can understand better since he lived abroad.

NaChaKi: I agree, as someone staying outside India myself! BTW, why is it that Village-lo Vinayakudu was not released all over the state? There was this comment in a section of the media that "Village-lo Vinayakudu is not in villages"...
Saikiran Adivi: Hmm, yeah, we couldn't release it in deep interiors of the state. A film that stars, say, NTR or Ramcharan or someone like them can be a crowdpuller in C centers also, but I didn't think we have that edge for our film. We did release it in all centers - cities, towns, and villages - where Vinayakudu was released. We'd possibly go deeper into all areas when a positive talk spreads in two to three weeks.

NaChaKi: What prompted you venture into production right after your debut film?
Saikiran Adivi: I always had the idea of getting into film production. If I had money or fame back then, I'd have produced even Vinayakudu myself. Even if I had a name for myself, I could have put that in as an investment and got money to produce a film, but that wasn't obviously the case for my debut project. ...My friend Mahi returned from a marketing job in New Zealand while I was working on Vinayakudu. We both started "Moon Water Pictures Pvt. Ltd." and brought in corporate tieups for films like Yuvatha, Vinayakudu, etc. Our actual idea was to produce films but we took off with these initially. When Vinayakudu was nearing completion, Mahi came up with the idea of making a sequel and I said we could try it out when that film comes up as a success. And then, we thought we could produce it ourselves too.

NaChaKi: Did you actually approach Prem Movies (which produced Vinayakudu) or did you want to produce it yourselves because it's Mahi's idea to make the sequel?
Saikiran Adivi: I'd have produced my second film myself in any case, whether it was a sequel to my debut film or not. There was this satisfaction, freedom, and flexibility in an own production. Even if we spend Rs. 10 from a producer's pocket, we sometimes may not get the same satisfaction as spending hard-earned Re. 1 from our own pocket! ...We can take our own decisions when we produce the film ourselves. For example, we released the audio CD for less than Rs. 10. We made the decision on the spot! If the producer was different, such a bold step might not even be possible and the discussions would have taken 15 days at the least, in any case, and the idea would get stale by then!

True! And so, tell me more about the audio which was offered at a sensational price too!
Saikiran Adivi: ...When we were planning to sell our audio rights, I took appointment with someone at an audio company near RTC X Roads. When I went there at the said time, he left by then and when I called him from there, he asked me to leave the CD with the security personnel and that he'd get back to me after listening to the songs. I was hurt and I told curtly that I wanted to do the business with him in a professional manner and that's not how I'd want it done and walked out of there without giving my CD. I really felt very bad thinking how cheap creativity was seen to be! We even thought we'd not sell it to anyone, and later approached my close friend Sridhar of Madhura Audio Entertainers with our package - Rs. 9.98 per audio CD, with Reliance SIM card free, etc. - ...With good content in the album, we were confident that the idea of a CD for Rs. 10 would surely work, and there was this attractive package. We released 50,000 audio CDs first and later released a batch of 1,00,000 more!

NaChaKi: Being a writer-director yourself, how did you manage the budget as the producer? How could you make a movie in a shoestring budget of less than 1.5 crores?
Saikiran Adivi: It's all in the planning. The logic is that we should know our target before venturing and then we can do all in our reach to achieve the target. Suppose I want to go from Hyderabad to Vizag. I can take a flight, or reserve my ticket in a train, or go by bus, or I can even go to Vijayawada first and borrow money from a friend and go if I don't have enough money with me! If we have that target of going to Vizag clearly in mind, we can plan the execution accordingly and use our resources as necessary - that's the commonsense aspect of it. ...It's not that we had money in our hands. Neither Mahi nor I had invested even one paisa of our own in the film! But, we are the producers and we hold the rights to our creation. ...It may be that our brains worked more effectively essentially because we didn't have money! (Laughs) The basic idea is more powerful than money! If I know clearly that I need one crore, I can then act on the idea and get that money somehow. That's the way we planned and executed. We believe that it's a misconception to think that one can make a movie only when one has money in hand. More important is having the idea which can generate the required money.

NaChaKi: ...And, you did prove that as a misconception now!
Saikiran Adivi: Yeah, right, but the whole team worked hard and we all really wanted a memorable success. It worked out well at the end, and the positive talk is really satisfying!

NaChaKi: I felt Vinayakudu could have fared better with more publicity. Are you planning better publicity for the sequel now?
Saikiran Adivi: Yeah, even I felt the same then. We are planning it better this time, I could say. We are not compromising on publicity and would go in an innovative way. With 1,50,000 CDs released into the market, we also hired a Volvo bus and went on a success tour for audio, which was never done earlier for a Telugu film, and we got a good response too for our all-Andhra Pradesh trip. Such a strategy worked for us, and we also came to know what kind of expectation the film had among the audiences. We are still thinking of better and effective ways of publicity even today. ...Publicity doesn't intended to force a new product with fake praises. Such a publicity only works for a few days and people would soon realize the better of it. Since we have the confidence in our project and because there's a positive talk already, there's a word of mouth publicity and we can improve it further with other ideas that we can work out.

NaChaKi: How did you zero in on casting writer Yandamuri Virendranath gaaru, who's not an actor himself? How did you approach him in the first place and convince him to acting?
Saikiran Adivi: It's the role of an advocate. Thanks to my experience in Sekhar Kammula's direction department, I have this feeling that freshers bring a whole newness to the character. Since I worked with no one else, that's the only film-making style I know. (Laughs) My friend Vijay brought me one day Yandamuri's book "vijayaaniki aidu meTlu", which had his picture on the cover. I saw this real glow in his face there and felt he'd be the right fit to the role. In my opinion, Yandamuri gaaru isn't a fresher really - he's a star writer, of course! The star value and the glow that he carries would be an advantage to the role, I felt, and I approached him directly and told the script briefly after introducing myself and asked him if he'd be interested. You should ask him why or how he got convinced! (Laughs)

NaChaKi: I remember that he mentioned that shooting in his native place Rajole was also one reason...
Saikiran Adivi: Well, he can go to Rajole on his own if he wanted to, of course! It might also be because he liked my approach, the subject, or something. The Rajole feeling might have an added reason too. I am sure he'd not waste a few days doing some cheap role even if it's in Rajole. I am now very happy that the audiences were enjoying his role really well, whenever he appeared on the screen or spoke. I witnessed it myself in Devi 70 mm at Hyderabad and felt glad that I don't need to regret for giving the star writer a bad name after all, with a role I gave him.

NaChaKi: Yandamuri gaaru is a star writer in Telugu films also, and a director too. Like you mentioned earlier, you generally worked with freshers only. Was his experience helpful or problematic during the shoot?
Saikiran Adivi: I developed a good rapport with him even before the shoot started. Interaction with him was like with an uncle or some relative, thanks to his affable approach. Thus, it wasn't tough to deal with him any bit. However, his experience did help me really! There's this dialogue in the climax that Yandamuri gaaru tells Rao Ramesh. I tried to pen that dialogue for 2-3 days but could not frame the content in a proper dialogue. The midnight before shooting that scene, Yandamuri gaaru called me up and said he'd speak it himself in the shot directly and it was exactly what I wanted to tell through that dialogue! One more thing: when we approached him to get his costumes ready, he said we don't need to spend on costumes specially since he already had a well-furnished wardrobe and we could just choose whatever suits the character, so that we can save some of our production costs thus! We both had such familiar interaction between us.

NaChaKi: Some reviews from film websites and audience too seem to say that the heroine Sharanya Mohan is a miscast in the film. Did you not notice that during the shoot? Why did you not actually continue Sonia from Vinayakudu?
Saikiran Adivi: Firstly, the sequel is not a continuation of Vinayakudu, and thus we wanted a fresh face for the heroine. The audience already saw the love story with Sonia and would not easily accept a new story now. Moreover, I needed someone with the looks of a homely girl in a village backdrop but Sonia has this ultra-modern urban looks with her curly hair and all and that wouldn't suit the role. ...I chose Sharanya Mohan for the exact reason that some people are now thinking it's a miscast. There's even a dialogue in the film that goes "nuvvu elakalaa unTaav, vaaDu Enugulaa unTaaDu! mee iddari match elaa accept cheyyamanTaav?". It's a very odd pair and that's the concept of the film itself - that physical appearance doesn't matter and only the mental chemistry between the two individuals is important. Not every girl that marries someone with stunning looks like Hrithik Roshan would be satisfied and the converse is not true either. Mentalities, attitudes, and understanding actually matter in real life, and that's what we wanted to tell in the film too!

NaChaKi: That reminds me of the odd-pair contest that Moon Water Pictures is doing with TeluguCinema.Com. How is the response for the contest?
Saikiran Adivi: I can tell more about the contest in a day or two once we know more details, but the contest is going on. The response is really good until now, though.

NaChaKi: Sam Prasan provided good music for Vinayakudu. Manikanth Kadri is my favorite music director too, but was there a specific reason to change the music director?
Saikiran Adivi: It's not that Sam Prasan doesn't have the right potential. He did a good job for the urban setting of Vinayakudu, but I needed someone who can do a fitting job for the rural setting of this film. I liked Manikanth's style of music, orchestration, etc. and felt he'd be the perfect choice. And, one more reason is that I prefer new technicians each time. If I get into sync with one technician for a film, we could become repetitive and the technician would start giving me just simply what I like instead of his real style of work. Any experimenting can only happen with fresh technicians.

NaChaKi: You received comments for Vinayakudu that the narration was slow. Again, the same comment continued for Village-lo Vinayakudu. Why is it that you and nearly everyone from Sekhar Kammula's school have this slow narration syndrome?
Saikiran Adivi: (Laughs) When we are trying to tell a subject or establish a character, it feels slower. If the pace increases, the sensibilities and emotions that should be carried might not be carried in a justified manner. Say, the protagonist is rough, that he likes the heroine and express his love, that he fought with a gang, spoke to the girl's parents and ran away with the girl, and finally married with their consent... do you see any characterization here?! The pace feels faster when I drive the film fast even before the audience can think, but I believe I am giving my audiences that space to think for themselves about the current scene. ...The so-called Sekhar Kammula school of directors concentrate on character establishment and the likes and thus the pace might seems slow. Some people told me that Vinayakudu was like an in-between for TV serials and movies in its pace (Laughs) but the same people also watched the film multiple times because the character caught up with them well. When we start telling that the protagonist is like this, does this job, has this daily schedule, etc., people might get bored and feel all that is unnecessary. But, if people thought that the film is actually bad because of the slow pace, Vinayakudu would not have got such collections. Even big hits among old classics were this way, if you observe...

NaChaKi: Vinayakudu may have come out successfully, but I think Aavakai-Biryani suffered because of the same reason though the content was good. I was about to bring the example of L.V. Prasad's classic Missamma myself now and you mentioned classics already! That film, for example, doesn't take specific scenes to establish the characters. The characters are well-etched but are revealed as the story moves along all the time...
Saikiran Adivi: I cannot talk about Aavakai-Biryani and analyze Anish's movie because he tried his best to show what he wanted to show. In the classic Missamma, there's an intelligent play with humourous scenes as the characters are established - how Savithri makes the interviewer gulp water while NTR drinks water himself, how the lead pair lie to each other to get into the same job, etc. What surprises me is that people accepted Missamma then but feel our films are slow! Maybe it's that characterization establishment is not being done so much these days! I can immediately think of Raviteja's character in Idiot and Amitabh's character in Sarkar that were brilliantly established. Everyone seems to be doing it in their style...

NaChaKi: Would you not lose some sections of audience because of this slow-paced narration? What would you do in future to come out of the so-called "Kammula influence"? Did you already do anything in this regard?
Saikiran Adivi: I cannot make films based on such calculation. ...An efficient potter should not try to be a good builder! He can make pots well, and that's what he should do. Maybe this is what I know. I'll try to change it one way or the other as long as characterization is not compromised or disturbed. It's a good point indeed! I received the same comment in the past too.

NaChaKi: What are your plans next? Is another sequel coming? Would you continue to make low-budget flicks on your own banner or would you direct for others too? What kind of films do you want to produce/direct? Would you want to plan for a movie with stars?
Saikiran Adivi: Subject is more important than the budget. If I have a subject, the budget can be planned accordingly like I said earlier - finances can be obtained, corporate tieups can be brought in, etc.. If Vinayakudu was made like Magadheera with a 40-crore budget, it'd be a disastrous failure even if it ran for 100 days, and if Magadheera was made in 1.6 crores, it'd not have been successful either! (Laughs) We should thus make the range of the subject decide the budget. ...I believe that a project starts with the script and then passes through phases such as preproduction, shooting, post-production, publicity, release, and ultimately theatrical run. Until the film leaves theaters, I don't think my job or my team's job for that project is complete, and thus I cannot concentrate on other project ideas until then. ...Directing for other banners is an open question until that time when I start thinking of the next film. I am not also capable of directing 3-4 films a year like the veterans did in the past...

NaChaKi: Would you direct a movie with stars if you get a chance?
Saikiran Adivi: I cannot plan a project just because someone approaches me with a 10-crore budget, because such a haphazard production ends as a damp squib in my career and as a financial loss too! It's not that I shouldn't work with stars but it's that my script's content should first appeal to them, failing which there's no point in making a star-studded film. Once the project design is complete and if a star is needed and willing to work for it, I don't have an issue at my end.

NaChaKi: Even this seems like a standard answer from those coming from Sekhar Kammula's school!
Saikiran Adivi: (Laughs) They say everyone studying in the same college exhibit similar behavior or attitude. Or, maybe it's just that birds of same feather flock together!

Interview: NaChaKi