On a sweltering afternoon, director Teja breathes easy after completing the post production of Sita , which is scheduled to release on May 24. Settling down to talk about the film, he reveals that the story idea emerged eight years ago. He had initially titled it Savitri, but since that title was registered by another film team, he changed it to Sita .
Kajal Aggarwal plays the central character Sita, who Teja describes as “a ruthless business woman who wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone for profit.” Elaborating, he adds, “In Ramayana, Sita crosses a boundary line that’s set for her. But here, Sita draws the boundaries for others.”
The director states that it’s the strongest female character he has written till date, and is confident that the audience will welcome the film, “Telugu cinema is male-dominated. We have had very few female-centric films and most of them have become huge hits. In a formulaic film, the heroine has a role that’s limited to being in awe of the hero. When you make the woman a central character, this staid template changes and a fresh story can be told, which is why the audience likes such films.”
Director Teja with Kajal Aggarwal
Teja points out that most of his films have had strong women characters, cases in point being Chitram, Nuvvu Nenu and Nene Raju Nene Mantri . “Even in Nijam , the mother plays a strong part,” he adds. Writing strong female characters, he says, comes naturally to him, “I grew up in a family where women had strong voices. My father’s sisters were leading their families. Both my sisters are managing business enterprises. And my daughter is multi talented. She’s pursuing a course in business and music at Berklee College of Music. She’s a singer, painter, sculptor and good at academics. My wife and me didn’t raise my daughter different from our son.”
Over the years, whenever he has had women as assistant directors, Teja says he made sure they got prominent responsibilities, “When women are in-charge of a few departments, it changes the discourse and makes everyone on the sets more gender sensitive.”
Sita also stars Bellamkonda Srinivas and Sonu Sood in roles that are different from what they’ve done before. Revisiting his original idea from eight years ago, Teja updated it to suit the current scenario. “In between I made several flop films for six years. I don’t think any other director has made as many disasters as me,” he laughs. But he plodded on, because storytelling through cinema is the only thing he knew.
The much-needed break came through Nene Raju Nene Mantri . The industry perceives him differently today, he admits. “I’ve been getting more cheques (offers). I work for the joy of seeing stories on screen, not merely for money,” he asserts.
Bellamkonda Sreenivas, Teja and Kajal Aggarwal
Teja lauds Kajal for her performance in Sita and feels she stands a chance to bag a few awards. “She’s grown as an actor. When I introduced her in Lakshmi Kalyanam (2007), she was raw,” he recalls, “She was good in Nene Raju … but even better while working in Sita .” It also helped that the character has several shades. “I don’t write my heroes and heroines as men and women who can do nothing wrong. They are humans with flaws,” he points out.
Teja believes his strength lies in the wealth of story ideas. “We don’t have a television at home. Our dinners last for an hour and a half. I narrate a story and my wife, children and dogs listen in. When I think a story has the potential to be made into a film, I usually narrate it to my team (writers and assistant directors) and they help me flesh it out,” he says.
Does Teja record or note down all his ideas? “I remember them. I have a reasonably good memory; I can recall around 600 phone numbers without looking into my phone book.”
During the writing process and after the film’s first edit, Teja invites a few people from the industry to gauge their feedback: “These are experienced writers and filmmakers who can point out flaws. I am open to criticism and their inputs help me re-edit certain portions.”
