Popular fable ‘Paramanandayya Sishyula Katha’ set to entertain children in a 3D format

Director Venkata Rajesh Puli has conceptualised the first 3D film in Telugu for children

November 12, 2019 05:42 pm | Updated 05:52 pm IST

Venkata Rajesh Puli is a familiar name in director Maruti’s circle of associates. He had worked as Maruti’s co-director for Ee Rojullo and Bus Stop and also worked for a couple of his films as an executive producer. Thereafter, he directed Bunny and Cherry with Mahath and Prince which tanked at the box office and he now works as a content developer for television channels as a freelancer. Determined to win recognition and applause from the audience, he had recently embarked on a film for children — the ever popular fable of ‘Paramanandayya Sishyula Katha’.

Shot in a 3D format, he wrapped up the project in two crores that is inclusive of promotions. He cites Action (Allari Naresh), Om (Kalyan Ram) and Rudramadevi as the only three films that released in 3D in the 75 years of Telugu film industry’s history and is proud that his film is the first 3D film in Telugu for children. He shares, “I did this film in 40 days in Rampachodavaram but the stereoscopic work took quite a lot of time. There were many complications involved. I couldn’t compose the shot I like because of technical limitations. I sourced cameras from Kerala and the team which worked for Kurukshetra worked for this film. Like in Kutty Chetan made in 1983, the objects pop up and come right at you. We did the composing in Kerala.”

Admitting that working with children was a tough task, Rajesh says the seven characters are visible in every frame. The boys had no prior acting experience. Only two boys from Hyderabad were trained just before the shoot. The rest were from different districts. Rajesh took three months to identify the right actors and conducted workshops for two months. He had to co-ordinate and make sure the school curriculum and schedule didn’t clash with his shooting hours but he did take permission for a break on certain days.

He adds, “During the floods last year, we got precautionary calls and were asked to evacuate but what is noteworthy is that these children wrapped up the schedule in 72 hours before we were asked to relocate. Rampachodavaram and Maredmilli are the places where the main shoot took place. Some production houses shoot in 2 D and convert into 3D but I shot it straight with a 3D camera. Cinematographer Prabhakar Reddy also came with me to Kerala and I made him do some test modules before the shoot commenced. All are live locations and we were lucky to get such beautiful places to shoot. Apart from the seven boys, one girl played Paramanandayya’s daughter.”

Rajesh proclaims with pride that he made the children dub for the film. They struggled a bit but the outcome was really good. Ask him if crowds will throng to see such movies, he says confidently that there are hardly any films being made for children these days and that too in 3D. He is optimistic that there will be patronage for the story. Santhan Reddy and Kiran Sharma are the producers and Gummadi Gopalakrishna who is a stage artiste played the guru. The story is a relationship between guru and his disciples and the title is an allusion to the naive and innocent sishyas of Paramanandayya.

The bumbling ways of the sishyas, invariably end up becoming good for society. In 1956, NTR worked in a film with the same title. It is a historical tale with a pan Indian significance. Rajesh attempts to put the story in a nut shell, “The disciples are actually seven sages who incur the wrath of an apsara who is bathing in a pond. The celestial being curses them to turn ‘stupid’ and declares that they will be free from it at the time of her marriage to a human being. During the period of the curse, the leader of the sages anticipate the ridiculing of the disciples by society and turns them into youngsters. The story is thus about these sages who are summoned by Shiva for ‘Loka Kalyanam’ and for a yagna.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.