After directing two films – Oohalu Gusagusalaade and Jyo Achyutananda, Srinivas Avasarala has emerged as one of the most interesting filmmakers in Tollywood. The characters in his film speak a language that’s rare to find in mainstream movies, although he avers that he’s making films for the same audience which also enjoys popcorn action blockbusters. In a candid conversation with iDreampost, Srinivas Avasarala opens up about his latest film Jyo Achyutananda, what he loves about writing and why he doesn’t have anything to lose.
For someone who has a great sense of humour, it’s interesting that Srinivas Avasarala has a stiff upper lip. Even when he laughs, it’s controlled and before you can join him to share the same emotion, he gets back to his normal state, which, for some reason, is tough to understand. Since he’s a writer (and a damn good one at that), you begin to wonder if he’s trying to a weave a story around the conversation, but then you could be entirely wrong. The thing is, in these eight years after he made his acting debut with Ashta Chemma, it’s been tough to categorise Srinivas Avasarala – both as an actor and a writer. He plays comic roles with the same ease as pulling off emotional performances. He goes on to wrote a beautiful romantic comedy like Oohalu Gusagusalaade and out of the blue, he springs a surprise with a bromance like Jyo Achyuthananda. So, who’s the real Srinivas Avasarala? And which version of him do we get to see on any given day? We don’t know. Not unless you begin to find a pattern in the way he thinks and what motivates him to write or direct films. This….
“You should try the seethaphal flavoured ice-cream here. It’s amazing,” he says, breaking my stream of consciousness. That’s probably not what I had imagined him say but he’s right there – over 6 feet tall, still reclusive and difficult to read what’s going on in his mind. We are in an ice-cream parlour in Hyderabad and just when he’s about to pay the cashier, a woman, who’s admittedly his fan, spots him in the parlour and rushes towards him for a selfie. He obliges and then turns his attention towards me asking if I had made up my mind. So, I take his advice and order a seethaphal flavoured ice-cream. He was right. The ice-cream melted in my mouth faster than I thought. Just when we are about to start the conversation about his latest film Jyo Achyuthananda, another couple settles down in a seat next to ours distracting both of us for a moment. “So…” he says, hinting that he has to rush for another interview in 15 minutes. “We’ll be done in 15 minutes. I promise you,” I said. And the clock started ticking…
It’s interesting to hear you say that you were really tensed about the Jyo Achyuthananda’s prospects at the box-office ahead of the release and that you were scared before its release. What happened?
Truth be told, no one liked the film when the footage came to the editing table. Later, the film was screened to few people outside the team and even they didn’t like it. One of the common complaints was – “Why should I care about these brothers? You haven’t shown them being pally with each other.” But when I wrote the script and directed it, I felt that they were quite pally with each other. You don’t have to explicitly say that you are my Laxmana and I am your Rama. For instance, the way they share a cigarette, that itself was a sign of them bonding a lot with each other. It worked for me, but people, who watched the film before its release, wanted the relationship between the two brothers to be more explicit.
Another issue that I dealt with was the runtime of the film. Initially, when I started writing it, I was very clear that it is going to be a 2 hours 40 minutes movie because I had to narrate 3 flashbacks in the first half, but then eventually Sai Korrapati (the producer of the film) convinced me to narrow it down to 2 hours 10 minutes. Once you begin to doubt your initial judgement, everything goes haywire.
Did you have to drop a lot of scenes that you thought would have worked because of this change of plans?
Hmmm….Initially, I wanted to write that ‘Dialogue In The Dark’ (restaurant) scene for 4 minutes and it seemed like a very ambitious idea back when I thought about it, but then I realised that it might be very difficult to hold the scene for that long. So, then I thought that I would intercut it with something else. The problem was that the voices weren’t dubbed when we shot it. Since I knew what was going to be there, I left it there thinking that I will do something about it in editing. But everything changes once it comes to the edit table – it can really chaotic to just stare at a blank screen for 4 minutes. So, whatever risks that I wanted to take thinking that it’ll look great onscreen, they weren’t working at all. That’s when I started doubting everything. Whoever was on the edit table, expressed their concerns. My direction team felt Oohalu Gusagusalaade was a better film. I was prepared for the worst. I thought people would say, “It’s not a bad film, but people might feel it’s boring.”
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. People did like the film and praised a lot of aspects. Now that the Jyo Achyuthananda has released, would have done anything differently?
I want to move on now and not think about the film, but I would have written the second half differently. I kept thinking about it even when I wrote the draft initially. It’s not clear what the girl wants until the end. But if you want to empathise with the character, you (the audience) want to know her motive and have some clarity about the character graph. The catch is, if I treat it in that way, the suspense factor will be gone – people will know that she’s playing a game with both the brothers. So, I had a choice between keeping the suspense factor alive and making the character’s intentions and motive clear so that people can empathise with her. I chose suspense because I felt the drama played out better when the audience didn’t know why the girl was playing games with these two guys. Maybe I would have done it differently. I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it now.
One of the issues that I had with the film was that it starts off as a story which revolves around three people in the first half and then you completely focus on Achyuth and Anand even though Jyothsna is still there.
That’s exactly the problem. Once the motive of Jyothsna becomes clear that she wants to bring together these two brothers, it becomes story of all the three protagonists even though she doesn’t have so much screen time. But remember – Whatever is happening is happening because of Jyothsna and also because Jyothsna wants it to happen. It’s Jyothsna’s objective that’s being played out on screen.
Throughout the film, Achyuth and Anand bond a lot over cigarette and even the conversations about cigarette and smoking are pretty humourous. What was the idea behind that track?
I have noticed that whenever people smoke, they share an instant bond no matter what goes on between them. Have you noticed that a smoker doesn’t want to see another smoker without a cigarette? (laughs) This is what I meant when I said that you don’t have to show them (the brothers) being too pally. They can just share a cigarette and that becomes an expression of their relationship. It’s not humour actually. It’s not just a joke. People bond over cigarettes and it was just a symbolic representation of that.
Do you have a brother?
Yes, but we don’t smoke. (laughs)
Fair enough! I was going to ask you if making this film was your way of saying sorry to your brother for whatever you might have done in the past?
We are nothing like Achyuth and Anand. He has been very supportive and has stood by me no matter what I have done, He helped me financially when I was going through a bad phase. He calls me all the time to check how I was doing. He is my moral support. I haven’t taken any aspect from my brother.
Prior to the release, I remember you telling me that the film has a tricky screenplay and that’s what excited you in the first place. Were you talking about how the same story is played out twice from different perspectives? And when you are writing something, you have already seen how it is going to play out. Were you concerned about how the audience will react to it?
I’m the first audience and whatever is my first reaction, I will go by that. There is nothing in the film that the normal audience won’t get. It’s very simple. When I first started writing the story, this tricky screenplay is what got me excited in the first place. One guy lies to his wife and so does another guy to his wife. Now that they have lied, they have to exchange their lives as well. Achyuth has to play tennis and appreciate what Anand had done in the past. On a similar note, Anand has to paint to live Achyuth’s life for that brief moment. Also, the whole film has to play out under one roof. I couldn’t expand on it visually. I can’t go to some other location and shoot some scenes. There is only so much I can do visually.
Is writing a script a challenge for you, especially when most of it has to unfold in the same location?
Writing is never a challenge. Whenever I write, it gives me a high. Directing is a challenge, because I’m making what I have already seen in my mind. It’s almost like directing a remake. It’s boring; however, I tried using couple of devices to make the process interesting. At one point, in the film, the stories which the two brothers narrate to their respective wives, begin to merge. In one scene, when one guy opens the almariah, his brother steps out and the camera pans to both of them. Initially, I didn’t know if I could go ahead with it because I felt it might be confusing, but the audience got it. Nobody complained about that. Later, when I looked at the rushes, since most part of the film unfolds inside a house, it felt boxed. Something was amiss, while I was watching the edit.
Do you still feel the film lacks something?
It doesn’t lack anything in the truest sense. When I wrote the first draft, the brothers were very similar to each other – they were doing well in life and didn’t have anything to worry about except the love part. Once I wrote the first draft, I could have easily made it into the story of one guy – who falls in love with a girl and later, how his wife finds out. So, unless there is some sort of dynamics between the brothers, it wouldn’t have worked. That’s one thing that I fixed in my next draft. If you talk about a conflict in this film, which doesn’t have a villain, once you have two brothers, everything that stands as a symbol for their unity should be ready to collapse. In the film, this unity is represented through the house which they are going to sell; mother, who’s forced to split her time between her sons. Whatever is holding them together, it’s not there anymore. That’s what triggers the change in the end. Did I miss anything?
I’m still not sure if you have missed something. It felt very organic. Coming back to your writing process, were you trying to match everything between the two brothers to give them equal importance?
Not really. There is an imbalance in the second half, if you observe closely. People lean a little towards Achyuth (Nara Rohit) because they think Jyothsna is in love with him until the engagement scen and then you realise you see she has done the same with Anand. And Achyuth’s character has an arc because he goes through a major change. Maybe that’s why Rohit’s performance gets a bit more highlighted, whereas I think both Shaurya and Rohit have done extremely well towards the climax. People tend to like a character who changes over the course of the story. There is no way I could have had two arcs in this story. It is about one brother Anand, who looks up to his elder brother Achyuth, waiting for him to speak out and stand up for him, whereas Achyuth always mistreats him. So, ideally, there can be only one person who goes through that change.
Whose story is it in the end?
It’s a love story between two brothers – who are together in the beginning, then they part ways and then, in they end, come together again…. and Jyo comes like a catalyst.
Let’s talk about your writing. A lot of people opine that you are one of the best writers in the industry today. What motivates you to write? And have you figured out what your style is?
Not yet. I haven’t figured out what my writing style is. Every time I make a film, I don’t know if I’m ever going to make a film after that. I guess I filter way too much in my mind before I put something on paper. I must have killed hundreds of ideas even before I given them a shot and on top of it, I’m not easily convinced with stories that others pitch to me.
Is that because your sensibilities are different? You’ve been in the industry for eight years and having come back from the US, it must have been quite difficult for you to fit in because nothing you write or direct is ‘conventional’ in the strictest sense?
Perhaps, you are right. I don’t fit into a conventional zone of how things are done here. I have always wanted to write, but writers aren’t given as much importance unless you can also direct them. There’s no big money in writing. I would be more than happy to just write, if I the pay and recognition was good. Another thing is that, when I made my debut with ‘Ashta Chemma’, I kept rejected a lot of acting offers because they all seemed to be an extension of what I had done in my debut film. I didn’t want to hit a roadblock after few years, whereas a lot of people advised me to make hay while the sun shines.
So, are you saying that you aren’t well-settled yet?
(laughs) Not yet! Maybe, I will be in that space if I make my third and fourth film.
Coming back to films, I’ve always wanted to know, do you have an ending in mind when you write? Or do you keep going back and forth to come up with a logical script?
That’s something that I’m still working on. For Oohalu Gusagusalaade, I didn’t have an ending in mind and the one which got made finally didn’t quite impress my producer (Sai Korrapati). He still has issues with it (smiles). It’s always good to have a beginning and an ending in mind. That way, you can keep going back and forth to reach that ending which you desire. In case of Jyo Achyuthananda, I did have the ending in mind when I started writing the script.
Another thing is, are you in control of the characters and the story that you are writing? Or do you let the story take its own course while writing?
For me, it’s the characters that are more important than the story itself. The plot is just a device to bring the characters out. So, everytime I watch a film or make one, I make sure that the characters stand out. Then, there are two ways to go further in this process – a) Are your characters achieving their objective? b) Are your characters reaching an objective which the audiences want them to? They are completely different from each other and a lot of times, it’s better to let the audience dictate the progression of the characters in the story. That’s why I say that I’m the first audience of my film and hence, I go with my gut feeling.
You are often categorised as an intelligent filmmaker, for whatever reason that might be. Does that scare you?
It doesn’t. You know what scares me? It’s this tag that I’m the representative, almost a guardian, of Telugu language in contemporary Telugu cinema. And I’ve heard that from a lot of people, who like my kind of writing. It’s funny, at the same time, because before I began writing scripts I felt that I wasn’t good at Telugu language. And once I wrote Oohalu Gusagusalaade, I had people telling me that I was using too much ‘grandhikam’ (laughs). I didn’t get it because I thought I barely scratched the surface of what Telugu language has to offer.
I know that you are a voracious reader. So, what are you reading these days?
I’m a lot into Telugu literature these days because, like I said, I’m scared of people’s expectations from me. I’m thoroughly enjoying the writings of Chalam and Mullapudi Venkata Ramana garu.
Are you looking for new ideas in these novels?
No. I’m just enjoying what I am reading (in Telugu literature). I get new ideas when I read English novels because I end up focusing more on the plot there. But then, your mother tongue is your mother tongue. Once you begin reading (Telugu) literature, you can relate a lot more to the characters and the background the story is set it. It’s almost as if someone is talking in your head.
In a recent interview, you said that you are going to direct a film with Nani in the lead role. What can we expect from your collaboration?
I narrated an idea to him during the making of ‘Gentleman’ and both of us felt that it’ll be a fun film (and it’ll work at the box-office). However, after watching him in ‘Gentleman’ where he unleashed a new side of him, my previous idea doesn’t excite me anymore. I want to write something which will explore another side of Nani’s acting potential. Maybe, I’ll toy with a different genre altogether.
And you are acting in the Telugu remake of Hunterr. I’m sure you’ve been asked this question before, but didn’t it sound risque to take up that role?
Not at all. When I first saw the original film, I felt it was a good film and there’s also a psychological aspect to why the character does what he does. As an actor, I’m open to doing all types of characters. If the film’s remake works in Telugu for its emotional content, then that’s great. If it doesn’t, then it’s just another film. I’ve nothing to lose.
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