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Kamal Kamaraju made his debut as second lead in
Godavari. Then he also acted as lead hero in an experimental film,
Confessions of A Filmmaker directed by Anish. Now, he graduates to the lead hero. His first movie as main hero -
Avakayi Biryani, directed by Anish again, is getting released on Friday (Nov 14th). Here the man himself writes about his first movie experiences as a lead actor, his acting journey, etc. Read on.. |
It didn't occur to me till Sri Atluri asked me to pen about my journey on
Avakai Biryani that it has been almost 15 days less than a year since we started working on this and also living this dream of being a hero! Okay, cut the 15 days because I know that actually Anish told me he was going to cast me as a lead in his next film as he was writing the script... November 30 was the day Anish came up with this script and it all started with him writing it round the clock. Once he finished it, he e-mailed me to read. The first half came first, and I started crying in my reading session! Next came the second half, and this time around my voice started shivering even as I read those dialogues. (I do my script-reading aloud.) ...Jubilant is the only word! It was for the script and for me to be the lead actor I had to wait till December 4th. When Sekhar gave a final nod about the script and also about me to be the lead actor, Anish called me and came home that day to tell me, and of course my anxious parents, that finally their son is going to be the hero!! ...But, would it end there? No way! Then came the most lovable part - the pre-production - this is when the entire ingredients are brought together!
Pre-production:
The first person we have met was Manikanth Kadri, the music director. All those great reviews that I hear about the music now... it all started with those reading sessions in a small coffee pub near Ministers Road. This was around mid-December 2007. What a guy he is, really! He was equally tuned and excited with the project from the word 'go' and churned music almost everyday, sacrificing many of his personal commitments. Giving us the first glimpse and spreading open the canvas on December 29th with his first tune
maamiDi kommaku..., which just robbed our sleep with the beats. All through this, I was hanging around with director Anish and editor Praveen and we were day-dreaming about how big this film can be, wonderful as right people joined this small film slowly, realizing a big dream of Anish!
A smoky 9-hour session brought the entire direction department and all of us on to one platform of understanding Anish's vision for this film. We were yet to rope in the cinematographer who's now the key element. Shamdat got introduced into this project through some close personal contacts and he came on board with just one word over the phone - again, the best person on board - young, energetic, and extremely talented guy with great independence for this film. My workouts to make myself lean started, and it took quite a bit to get into this guy I play in
Avakai Biryani.
And, how can there be a romantic film without the heroine? It was in February we got to know the lead actress.. Anish spotted Bindu Madhavi in an ad, and surprising enough for all of us, she turned out to be a Telugu girl! What else, exactly what Anish was looking for! She was roped in immediately without a second thought and we started rehearsals, and of course, our other characters just happened to be God-sent too... Varun, Praneeth, Durgesh, Rao Ramesh, Kameshwar Rao, and a whole lot of supporting cast who are as important for this film as anyone else. Film-making involves huge planning with respect to script, and we had to go through many sessions as usual, and we were finally ready to head for our shoot. Shooting was to happen in Yenkatala (Vikarabad) and we'd be stationed in Vikarabad all through the schedule, start to end.
