Chandrasekhar Yeleti takes on direction, his films Okkadunnadu, AOR etc.

CHANDRASEKHAR YELETI Yeleti Chandrasekhar's recently released Okkadunnadu is doing well at the box office. He is admired by film critics and Telugu movie fans around the world for the kind of films he did (Aithe, Anukokunda Oka Roju, Okkadunnadu). TotalTollywood caught up with this director who has a down-to-earth attitude and is very honest. He talked about various aspects ranging from him entry into films, technique in film making and his recent Okkadunnadu.

A little background
My first film is Little Soldiers. I was in production team then. I stuck to Gunnam Gangaraju after that and did ad films. Since there was a gap for his second film, I was planning to work for Anthapuram with Krishnavamsi. During that time, I got a chance to work with K.Raghavendra Rao for ads and went on to work with K.Raghavendra Rao. I worked along with SS Rajamouli and Mullapudi Vara under his supervision. Rajamouli got Santhinivasam serial and I got to work for Amrutham. After doing 10 episodes of Amrutham, I got chance to direct Aithe.

How is Okkadunnadu doing and how are you feeling about it?
As per the reports, the film is doing very good in A and B centers. Especially A centers.

What kind of expectations did you have on this film before release?
I very well know that my films are usually for A and B center audience. During Anukokunda Oka Roju, I told my producers that I will not be able to reach to the C center audience. For Okkadunnadu, I expected the film to even run in C centers. The reason is I did not make the narration complex. It is a single threaded straight forward narration with action elements.

Even for music I kept the C centers in mind. For Anukokunda Oka Roju, it is all my selection with music. For Okkadunnadu, Keeravani garu suggested that if we are targeting C centers too then there should be racy numbers and he composed Obbo ee Magadu. Going by my taste, I would not even go for such songs. So that is the kind of precautions we took for this film. Also, Gopichand has good mass image. And since I was projecting him in a polished manner without missing his image, I thought it will be appreciated by all segments of audience.

Also, going by the feedback from Anukokunda Oka Roju, we made sure that every thing is easy to understand to the common audience. You might not believe that but one of the check list we got is not to have comedy dialogs like the ones we had in AOR. There is some humor done by Harsha in AOR and most of that is in English. That did not go well with the trade.

How far do you think the film reached your expectations?
The film is doing well in A and B Centers. As I mentioned above, we took many factors into consideration while making Okkadunnadu. Just for pure drama sake, I kept many logics aside. But the extra precautions we took in taking the film to C centers did not seem to frutify. The reason why I say this is because I still hear that the film has not completely reached to the C center audience.

Action sequences are fantastic and are very novel. How did you design these fights?
Concept and design is done during the scripting stage. It was during the execution that the masters threw their experience and knowledge which got the effect for the fights. For example the interval fight is executed by Vijay master in three frames. That came out excellent and I liked it very much. I should thank all three of them (Vijay, Alan Amin and Ram Laxman) for composing such excellent action sequences. Alan Amin composed the climax fight. Vijay and Ram Laxman composed 2 fights each. They are very enthusiastic and they are the main reason why the fights came out so excellent.

I am curious about the story of Okkadunnadu. Is it the rare blood group that inspired you for this film.
Not at all. I had the entire script ready and the script demanded a rare blood group. Assistant directors took up on the work and spent good time on the internet searching for content on rare blood groups. That is how we came across Bombay Blood Group. There are so many such rare blood groups.

You are kind of branded to be making novel thrillers. What is your take?
I would think so of any one who directed two thrillers back to back. That would be the case with any film maker. However, my intention was not that. My second movie was not to be Anukokunda okaroju. It was Udaykiran's film which never materialized. If that film went by plan then there would not have been back-to-back suspense films. Udaykiran's film was a good love story by all standards. That film is completely based on human emotions.

That was supposed to be a war front movie on the lines of Kargil. Why didnt that ever materialize?
Not a Kargil movie but a very nice love story. There is a small kargil episode in the film. That is pretty much it. The climax I wrote for it would still be the most touching climax. In fact, I developed the rest of the story for the climax.

I personally love war movies. The whole film is set in Military background. But due to budget factors, the film was dropped. Initially we had an estimate and went to the sets. Udaykiran was going through a bad patch at that time. He had four flops by then. After my movie started, his Love Today released and that failed too. So the producers became hesitant of investing the first approved budget.

Do you have any plans of restarting it?
The thing is I start losing interest. Once you think of an idea, it should be scripted and should be executed. If it is waiting for years together, I start losing interest and I go on to something else.

But you spend so much time on script and if the film is shelved, you lost some valuable time.
That is true. But as I said, I start losing interest. Secondly, it is not true that I work long time on a script. I usually dont spend more than 2-3 months on a script. For some reason, people have an impression that I work for years on a script. But that is not true. The point is you are excited about something and start writing on it. After a while you slowly start losing interest. A film should go to sets before that to be executed properly. I have about 30-40 stories that I wrote but then I moved on to something else. The key point is the zeal and how excited you are about that story at that given point of time.

How much time do you think is right to develop a script?
I cannot comment for others. But 2-3 months on the first draft is good for me. After that there would 2 more revisions. Due to market pressures and other factors, both Anukokunda Oka Roju and Okkadunnadu went to sets with the first draft itself.

If you were given extra time and if you had time to revise it one more time, would you have made any changes to Okkadunnadu script.
Definitely. I would have worked on betterment of the second half. I explained the entire story in the first half. It is kind of I opened my bag in the first half and in the second half, the audience wanted to see more - a twist or a different plot or something.

If you provided another twist in the second half of the film like your previous films,expectations of the audience for your fourth film would also be the same. This is the case with M.Night Shyamalan's movies right.
You are right. Expectations have to slow down and people should start anticipating different kind of movies from me rather than a pattern movie. There are crores of minds thinking about a possible twist or plot in the second half and it is only my mind working against all these to satisfy them. I hope the audience start expecting a different and good film rather than a thriller-with-twist kind of movies.

These kind of films if made in Hollywood would become blockbusters here too. But when they are made in Telugu, they might not run well. Why is that?
I am not sure of this observation. Because it will be same set of audience who will make these films blockbuster. If they liked it there, they will like it here. One difference I felt is that Hollywood audience enjoy different kinds of story and good narration. The quality is what matters there. For our audience, it is the entertainment that is the main factor. If the required ingredient (light entertainment) is missing, then no matter how good is the narration, it will not succeed. Another big advantage for the Hollywood is their sound design. They have stunning sound design. For example, I was watching a film in Star channel the other day. It was translated in Telugu. Frankly, it was horrible. After a while, I realized it was Pearl Harbor. It is one of my favorite films. Sound design makes much difference. The difference is that same shot taken with two different qualities of sound design will make the lower quality one look cheaper. Sound mesmerizes you into the film. Ambience sound tracks and dubbing tracks, and other things might change. That is one thing we are not catching up yet. It is not that we could not. But we dont have that much time. You would not believe this but the entire DTS mixing for Okkadunnadu is done in 2 days. That is very less amount of time for working on solid sound design.

Why is that? When you spend about 6 months on a project, why could not take few more days and spend on the sound mixing too.
Due to market situation. We fix the release date well ahead of time right. If production is one leg, trade & business is the other leg of film making. It is very tedious. Theater availability, release timing, and other factors are considered by exhibitors and distributors, and accordingly the pressure on the producer increases. It can be quoted safely that it is the market that decides many things in the film. You cannot blame any one in this line.

Who defines the budget? Is it you or the producer?
To be honest, it is neither the producer or director. The salability of the movie decides the budget. Unless I have 100 crores of money and I dont mind spending it unnecessarily, it is the market that defines the budget. This is what exactly happened with Udaykiran's film. We had to reduce the budget. So I decided to make changes in the script. But the producer did not like the script to be changed. For example, there was a polo game in the film. If I changed it to a chess game, the budget will drastically change.

Do you have any plans of going to Bollywood like Ramgopal Varma.
I have plans but not immediately. The simple reason is the number of Metros.

Do you have any plans of AOR or Okkadunnadu in Hindi?
No. I will do the remake only if I am allowed to change the entire narration. I will keep the same point and change the presentation. Otherwise it is no challenge. Already AOR rights are sold.

what is your next film?
I registered a title Hayi Hayi ga going by the song in veluguneedalu. At this point, my plans are to make that film. If something else excites me tomorrow, I might drop this for time being and go for the other one. But at this point, I am thinking of making Hayi Hayi ga - a love story.

There is more exposure now a days on film making. There are many aspiring directors who are young and sophisticated. What is your comment?
Most of the folks who are now entering industry are very resourceful. They have a good grasp of world cinema and are already making wonderful short films etc. I can see that passion. That is very good. In our time, we used to watch only Hollywood films. Exposure to world cinema and knowledgable about film making is what gives these guys advantage.

How do you pick your assistant directors?
I ask them to write a 3-4 page synopsis of their idea. I will then judge their potential. That is what is important for a director. To be able to put it on a paper and be able to express the idea. If I find them creative enough, I will take them in. The filtering process is for their own good. If they really dont have that skill, they wont grow. Usually assistant director will work for 3-4 films and then go on his own and direct a film. But if one doesnt have that potential, then he will stick here forever for nothing. I have one guy Hanu working with me. He made one short film and that is screened at International film festival. Brilliant boy. I am getting compliments from other directors for that film. They are thinking that I made this film. But it was him who did that.

Suggestion to aspiring directors
Your first attempt should be original. Economics and other things are secondary. Secondly, working for a film is important. It doesnt matter if you are fresh or already have a diploma from an institute. Practical experience is something that is required. All the best.

Interviewed by Phani

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