Sri: Ramana gaarU, you are originally a cinematographer. [Ramana worked as a cinematographer for Village-lo Vinayakudu.] Then why didn't you take up cinematography yourself when you were starting with your directorial venture?
Ramana: Since this is my first film as a director, I wanted to concentrate on direction completely without diversifying into cinematography. Thus, I entrusted cinematography to Santhosh gaaru.

Sri: How do you know each other?
Ramana: When I first thought about the film, I tried to identify one person who can bring my vision to the screen. Such a person should also resonate with my mind. At that time, an assistant director Narasimham who worked for Andamaina Manasulo... told me to meet Santhosh and I did. After talking to him for a whole day, I was completely satisfied that he can be do justice to my film's cinematography. After listening to the story, he said that Coorg has the appropriate locations for our story, based on his experience of shooting his directorial venture Josh in Kannada around the same place. We went there thrice for location scouting. The right climate - with all greenery and mist - is only seen for a month's period there. We thus waited until the right time to start our shoot. Santhosh also introduced me to the art director who worked for his Josh and we took him along to the location scouting. He was so experienced that he could look at tree and tell us how it'd look during the season we would come back for the shoot! He was a great help...
Santhosh: I was planning to direct Josh in Kannada right after Andamaina Manasulo... and thus I couldn't work in Telugu right away. When I met Narasimham gaaru after that, I expressed my wish to work for another Telugu film and he introduced me to Ramana. We went to Coorg upon my suggestion after listening to the story and since he also liked the place, we started our shooting there.

Sri: You are both cinematographers that turned into directors. Did either of you not intetrvene in other's work or feel that you could have done something better than the other?
Santhosh: Nothing like that! The story is Ramana's and so I don't know the story as much as he does. So, my job is essentially to bring his story on to the celluloid. He used to tell me what he wanted and that made my job easier. I didn't interfere in the script - that's not my way of doing things.
Ramana: Taking suggestions for betterment of a scene is a common thing. He used to constantly think about the quality of the output and whether it's matching what we wanted. He's very patient...

Sri: There wouldn't be all positives in anything...
Santhosh: I don't have any complaints, anDii! (Laughs)
Ramana: Even I don't. While at Coorg, we used to share a room due to lack of space. That's when I saw his dedication. He used to get ready by 4:30 a.m. and used to leave to the shooting spot to set up proper lighting. ...Just one complaint against him (laughs): His marriage was settled just then. He used to talk to his fiancée for hours together every evening. Mobile signal was usually weak around there and he used to walk away for a better signal (laughs).

Sri: I heard that you did some kind of experiment for a song?
Santhosh: As you may know, each shot usually has 24 frames per second (fps). For one song, we used 500 fps! Such a frame rate is usually used for slow-motion action sequences but we used it for a song. Even the droplets that burst out of a bubble can be clearly seen at such a frame rate. One can feel the difference when one sees the song on the screen.

Sri: We digressed while talking about Santhosh's patience...
Ramana: We wanted to can the climax sequences at Jaipur. Santhosh's marriage was just five days away. Even at such a time he didn't say a word and accompanied us to the shoot. It's a big story (laughs)! Santhosh and I were in Bengaluru and we had to go to Jaipur the next morning. Varun [Sandesh] was in Mumbai and he flew to Jaipur from there. Our flight got delayed for some reason. We then hired a van, kept the driver awake all night by telling various stories to him, reached Jaipur and completed our shoot from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and returned to Bengaluru. Of course, we again told stories to the driver again to keep him awake, or we'd become a story ourselves the next day.

Sri: So finally, you slept during your marriage or what?
Santhosh: (Laughs) Oh, we had a break for a day before the marriage. I slept through the whole day then.

Sri: Even your music director got married recently...
Ramana: Right!

Sri: So how did you choose Yogi (Yogeshwara Sharma) as your music director?
Ramana: The credit should go to the dialogue writer Abburi Ravi. I wanted to get two songs written by Seetharama Shastry gaaru but I didn't know him personally. Ravi was the one who introduced me to Shastry gaaru. When I narrated the whole story, Shastry gaaru said that he'd pen all the lyrics in the film. We didn't think of Yogi even at that point. In fact, we met a music director in Chennai and even paid him advance. However, I had this thought in a corner of my mind that I should go for someone else instead. I wanted a music director who had the pride that he can do anything! Only new music directors would have that kind of attitude. When I shared that thought with Abburi Ravi, he suggested Yogi. That's how I got to know Yogi. All his compositions, except for the title song, were okayed the first time itself! He beautifully adjusted the title song's tune later to suit the situation and the lyrics.

Sri: What's your take on the songs, Santhosh?
Santhosh: I felt Ramana shot them equally beautifully too (smiles).

Sri: I heard you all enjoyed a lot during the shooting!
Santhosh: (Smiles)
Ramana: Yeah, yeah, we enjoyed a lot! (Pointing to Santhosh) This guy didn't even let us wear any footwear. That area had a lot of leeches - we cannot feel them if we have any footwear on and since Santhosh knew the area like the back of his hand, he ensured that we use no footwear while we walked around there!

Sri: So, Santhosh, are you going to Coorg again for your honeymoon?
Santhosh: The season for this year is over, and we may thus go next year round.

Sri: I heard there are satires on Varun Sandesh's Telugu pronunciation?
Ramana: Yes, but I wouldn't tell it all now. Watch it on the silver screen (laughs)!

Interview: Sri Atluri