Hyderabadi filmmaker Raja Pothineni is on a roll. His 15-minute short film, 60 Eight, premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, to “an overwhelming response”. “I am absolutely stoked. I worked hard for this, and to be rewarded this way feels great,” enthuses Raja.

The film, written, edited and directed by Raja, revolves around John, who spends 52 years in a state of comatose, after having survived a near-fatal car accident when he was eight years old, and wakes up at 60, after a meeting with his childhood friend Sarah.

“It took me a whole year to make this film. Since it begins in the 1960s, I had to do a lot of research to make the scenes look accurate. Even small things, like sourcing medical equipment from that time, took a lot of time and effort. I also held seven-eight casting sessions to finalise the cast, since I wanted the actresses who portray the different ages of Sarah to look similar,” recalls Raja, throwing light on the extensive pre-production work that went into making the film.

All the hard work seems worth it though when the feedback is so encouraging, reckons Raja. “people who’ve watched the film tell me they loved the authentic the story-telling and the depth of the characters. I’m not getting carried away though. I’ve got to move forward and outdo myself; there is no time to rest on laurels.”

The response is affirmation enough for what Raja wants his style of film-making to be. “Authenticity is what I want. I don’t like movies that are pushed down our throats; the ones where emotions are squeezed out of every scene. The Indian audience is exposed to a lot of mainstream cinema and they’re aware now when the acting is manipulative. Mine is a more minimalistic approach and I try to be as invisible as possible. I let the cast react naturally without pre-conceived notions. That allows space for the audience to interpret freely,” says the Telugu boy spent most of his childhood in Vijayawada.

So, does he plan to foray into Tollywood? “Of course! Tollywood is where my roots are. I am working on two Telugu scripts. Nani and Tamannah are my favourite actors. In fact, I’d love to work with Nani in the future. His acting is just effortless,” admits Raja, who also reserves special praise for his cousin, actor Ram Pothineni .

“We talk very often and give each other a lot of feedback. I loved his work in Nenu… Sailaja. He is always evolving as an actor, and has a maturity that belies his age. But that doesn’t come as a surprise; he was always a very dedicated person, right from childhood,” he says, signing off.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / Deepa Joseph, TNN / May 21st, 2016

Short filmmaker Aparna Malladi returns with a coming of age story in her second film ‘Anushree Experiments’

Hyderabad-based short filmmaker Aparna Malladi had written a coming of age story, shot it here and did the post production in USA. Titled The Anushree Experiments, her second theatrical release has Ulrika a female protagonist. Aparna’s first film Mitsein, (German word for ‘To Be With’) also with a female protagonist and shot in San Fransciscoreleased in 2009.

In the movie, a Hyderabadi girl Anushree, a chemical engineering student, gets bad grades and fails in her subjects. As she doesn’t have any plan, her parents want her to get married. However she wants to sabotage their plans and actually manages to graduate.

With a message

While she tries ingenious ways to break her impending marriage alliance, her father puts her in house arrest. She reads My Experiments With Truth and begins a comical Gandhian fast too. The movie sends out the message that just because a girl doesn’t have any plan and she doesn’t do well in her studies, it is not right that she be given only the option of getting married. Sometimes people need some time to find out what they really are about.

Isn’t Aparna’s first film similar to The Anushree Experiments?

“Right. There it is about her journey of marriage. She cannot connect with her husband and goes on a self-discovery. That is a bit mature story. Here it is a coming of age woman. You are not a girl anymore but you haven’t become a woman yet, that is what I explored. I looked for girls here. I met Samantha, Swati as I needed a performer but finally my producer who is from Nagaland and is in London, asked me to meet a girl Ulrika Krishnamoorthy. I went all the way to London to find a girl from Somajiguda,” smiles the director. Aparna reveals the main antagonist of The Anushree Experiments is Ramakrishna who has earlier worked in the television show Ruturagalu and Bahubali movie. Anushree has a love interest and very good suitors but she is not able to relate with them. Is she confident that she will find audience?

“We got a limited release, only three theatres. I showed the film to women in colleges and told them to encourage the film as it finds their expression in the story. I just made a story and figured out a way to make it accessible to audience. It is difficult but otherwise I should find a Pawan Kalyan. Where is the place for smaller stories? Personal stories need to be told and we have to push for it. LA has a vibrant Indie space but that doesn’t kill the smaller films and there are theatres that show such independent films. I come from that culture.”

“It is about young women; if women come to see such films, men too will. Raghavendra Rao once asked me if I am into making feminist films. I am not We all have our own little stories. Actors like Savitri or Bhanumati enjoyed longevity in the industry because they could get mature roles; now girls have narrowly defined roles, they can be easily substituted. If writers are all men and portray women as seductresses, then there is little hope. But I do have hope. I need to keep my budget low, but I do find producers for my films but my condition is that my protagonist will be a woman.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Y Sunita Chowdhary / Hyderabad – April 05th, 2016