"Life is Beautiful Star Search"
A role in a Shekhar Kammula movie is considered to be a sure-shot ticket to stardom in Telugu cinema.
His Happydays which released three years ago made the debutant actors stars overnight. Leader, which was another blockbuster, followed soon and the director is now hunting for new faces for his latest project Life is beautiful. To that effect, Shekhar has advertised on hoardings, tied up with radio stations and is touring colleges in search of the “faces” for his next movie, something he also did for Happydays.
Rubbishing claims that these are just publicity stunts, he says that it’s an honest search for the six lead pairs for the movie.
“My next movie needs young fresh faces. They needn’t be one of those six-pack boys and size zero girls who are usually wanted in films. Any outgoing, energetic youngster can log on to our website www.amigoscreations.com and send their pictures to me. If I feel they suit the characters of my film, they will be in. I am not looking at this as a forum to create buzz for the movie,” the director claims.
With Shekhar Kammula being a brand by himself, why doesn’t he work with established stars? “The script demands fresh faces with no other image. If I cast the same team of Happydays, it would be called its sequel. And the actors now have a certain image that doesn’t suit the characters. In Leader, I worked with seasoned actors like Suhasini, Kota Srinivasa Rao etc. They give us so many variations for a shot and we can choose what we want from it. At the same time, it is tough to get the freshers to be camera-friendly and train them. Everything has its pros and cons,” he clarifies.
The ace director is not bothered about being branded as a director who makes cinema for urban youngsters. He says the acceptance of urban cinema is increasing since there are multiplexes coming up everywhere.
“It is not a conscious effort to make cinema for a certain audience. I just write the script and make movies. For me, cinema is not a business equation; it is my passion and a medium to tell a story. When I made Anand, my audience were about 15 lakh people and then Happydays was watched by about one crore people. This means there is an increasing acceptance of urban cinema. Urban stories are not conscious decisions at all,” he says.
His films don’t have murderous villains or clichéd comedy tracks. They have no gravity defying fights or vulgar romance. Will we ever get to see a typical masala film from Shekhar? “I don’t do movies which patronize heroes where the audience see the hero more than the character. But I will certainly do action movies in the future with an established star,” he assures.
“Success doesn’t get to my head since I know that audiences’ tastes keep changing. So far my movies haven’t failed. There is pressure on me but since I make cinema for passion and not for business, I don’t let it affect me,” the director concludes.
No comments:
Post a Comment