The Seed of Direction

The year was 1990 (I was in my 04th grade). My dad, who was into shipping, returned from Singapore, and got a Stereo System (Aiwa) and VCR (Mitsubishi). Hailing from middle class, nobody has ever seen or heard about such things before. The local guys around treated me like a prince, and I even started walking approx. one inch above the ground. My cousin was then in his 10+2, and my father gave him few empty audio cassettes to get some nice songs recorded. He returned after a few days with some collections and the first Telugu songs that were played on the system were Shiva & Gharshana. My mom, dad and uncles who used to listen to English, and Hindi Songs mostly Ennio Morricone, Boney M, MJ etc amazed me all of a sudden when they switched to TELUGU, and repeatedly only two movies. Slowly listening to them, I was thrown to face some old man’s music, who composed Maharshi, Kokila, Kondaveeti Donga – none other than Maestro Ilayaraja. The rest till date is always “HIS”tory.

So after listening to the same songs repeatedly, I was encountered to watch Gharshana first. Video Rentals were popular then and my cousin got Gharshana one Friday evening (Gharshana was the first telugu film played on our VCR). We were kind of a joint family, and some 10-20 members watched the film on friday night. Then again on Saturday afternoon, the same movie was played. Except to Nirosha’s swim suit song (I was 04th grade) and some action sequences, I liked nothing then. All my family members looked to me like maniacs for watching this film twice within a gap of 8 hours.

We stayed at Coromandel Gate (some 4 km) from Gajuwaka. There was a C-Class Theater (Ajanta) where only two kinds of movies used to be played; either R-Rated English Movies, or extra ordinary classics. I am bewildered that I got exposed to classics like Shiva, Gaayam, Antham, Dalapathi, Mahanadi, Kshatriya Putrudu and lot more flicks only in that theater. I am still amazed why only these two kinds of movies were played. This theater was closed for a while and opened a couple of years before rechristened as “Likhita”.

Coming back, a few weeks later after running for some hundreds of days at big theaters like Jagadamba etc, Shiva was released at Ajanta. There was a rage of madness about the film. I never saw this theater running in full for days (or say weeks), and then the day came. We went to the theater. The posters themselves pulled my complete attention. I doubted if the movie consisted of no actors other than Nagarjuna; because all the posters contained only his photo. In those days, the posters generally contained photos of major cast in the film. My dad got tickets, and I overheard my mom scolding him for purchasing tickets in black. We went inside and the film started. Hold It!!! I am not gonna tell about the film. So Chill!

During the interval, and after movie, while coming out of the theater, I heard multiple frequencies of opinions. Some said this movie is all dark. Some others didn’t just stop telling that the movie is excellent. They split the film into departments and praised all the departments. Photography, Editing, Music, Action Choreography, and on and on and on…the list never ended. Every department was ended with a single word “Superb”. Being a tender kid then, I couldn’t understand much, but all I remember was, the time the VHS was released I don’t remember how many number of times I watched that film, and I don’t even remember in how many houses I watched the film (some were total strangers!).

It could be the terrific influence of my family members who used to watch movies like hell. One of my uncles was an advocate and seldom watched films. The only few movies that I watched with him were Maharshi, Nayakudu, and some other art films (readers may not know flicks like Vaishali, Daaham Daaham, Maa Badi) etc. I remember him watching particular films frequently like “Artharaathri Swaatantryam” and “Maharshi” My other uncle was a freak, he was this youngster, and got me introduced to all kinds of Hollywood flicks like Terminator, Ghost Busters, Indiana Jones, Robocop, Rambo and lots of movies. My dad was another weirdo. He got me introduced to the soundtracks of films like Rambo, Walker, some Client Eastwood flicks etc. Both my mom and dad were fans of Viswanath garu, so much that my father once travelled for some 14 km all the way from my home to a theater (Sangam Sarat); bought the tickets for “Swathi Muthyam”, came back and took us again, just not to mess up my family members with the rush. That was the craze.

All kinds of similar incidents, made me to watch those movies, which are often watched by critics (I believe), and I used to even criticize the common super duper hit telugu flicks, which lacked sense and logic. Thanks to Ram Gopal Varma (Dronacharya), for he never came out of his boundaries and I got interested in every flick of his. There was a regular talk about him in my family members. Mostly my second uncle, he used to tell me a lot of his films. I starting getting addicted to Ram Gopal Varma so much that I should not forget to even say, that I watched films like Ardh Satya (in my 06th grade) only because I heard the film’s name from him on some TV. This severe was his impact on me.

Let me tell you an interesting incident. I was in my 10+2 and after successfully failing in 04/06 subjects in my 10+1, I was sent to a boarding school (1997-1999). By then I was a big big fan of Ram Gopal Varma, he was in my blood. “Satya” got released then, and I did not get permission to go and watch that movie. I gave one of my friend (a day scholar) 50 Rs/- only to watch Satya and got him to tell me the story. That was my madness. In the leisure time, I used to explain my friends why I didn’t like the normal telugu movies and what lacked in them compared to Ram Gopal Varma Movies. Ironically, they didn’t consider me a genius or accepted my opinion, but named me as a maniac. I was called Junior Ramu.

I watched films like Mrugam, and Gulabi only because the directors were students of Ram Gopal Varma. Gulabi (looked like another Ram Gopal Varma film with amateur taking, the songs were excellent though). But Sindhooram played a huge impact on me. I liked the movie like hell and I still consider this film to be Krishna Vamsi’s best print. But why all of a sudden Krishna Vamsi??? Well! I am still on the track and let me pull you there.I can clearly recollect Ninne Pelladatha, pulled out the creative side of me. Our family liked the film so much that there are only two films I have watched for 10 times in a theater- Ninne Pelladatha and Aithe.

In my 10+2, being in a hostel, we were closed to all kinds of entertainment but only open to Botany, Zoology etc. During the free time, I used to lie on the bed, close my eyes and start watching Ninne Pelladatha. Right from the beginning till the song “Inkaa Yedo” (I didn’t like the film after that song). So, the days passed by and every Sunday I used to watch this film. Gradually, the film faded out of my mind, and I became vexed, that I no longer remembered any scenes and then a brilliant idea struck my brain. Why the hell don’t I direct a film on my style? So, I started visualizing scenes with limited music which I liked like hell; If it was a violent scene (Satya Theme), a romantic scene (Geethanjali Title Theme), a duet (Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin & Kannulonee Roopame). It is obvious that I was the Hero, and a girl “Ushasree” (You can also call her MIND-BLOWING) was the heroine in all my shots.

I started conceiving scenes and created so well, that my friends used me in the wrong way. They used to ask me to come up with porn stories (Hold It! They were the heroes there) with several plots of all kinds of genres: thrillers, comedy what not. All of them were hit, and were retold in our circles. That is when I ended up thinking….I wish I were a Film Director (obviously not Porn!).