Tharun Bhascker is ready with his next, a buddy comedy

Director Tharun Bhascker who gave us the heart-warming slice-of-life comedy Pelli Choopulu (2016), is returning with his second feature film, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi, soon. The poster of the buddy comedy was unveiled recently and a private screening saw a warm response.

“I didn’t want to go to the screening. In the team, we all knew we had to conquer the demon called Pelli Choopulu’s success and the expectations that came thereafter. We felt as though that film was laughing back at us,” Tharun tells us.

Nevertheless, he feels they have a better technical product on hand. “The response from the screening was better than for Pelli Choopulu, now I can’t wait to bring the film to the audience,” he adds.

This film is again backed by Suresh Productions and brings together newcomers and a few relatively lesser known actors. Primarily unfolding between Hyderabad and Goa, the film traces the journey of a bunch of friends who collaborate to make short films.

Notes from his past

Much before Tharun explored feature filmmaking, he was a name to reckon with in short film circles. In a way, he “dug into the well of emotions of short filmmakers” to make Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi. “The character sketches of the four friends and events are fictional, but I spoke to a number of short filmmakers to understand their journeys. I also drew from the memories of my short filmmaking days, where contemporaries like Vivek Athreya (who directed Mental Madhilo) and others would chill out at YouTube office and discuss life and cinema,” he recalls.

Tharun remembers visiting Goa when Channel V had organised a filmmaking fest. “Goa is a great place to visit with friends and make a film. The place becomes a character in this story,” he avers.

A poster of ‘Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi’  

“I think we’ve managed to present Goa like no one else has.” Lesser known vistas of Goa brings up memories of films like Finding Fanny and Dear Zindagi. The Goan setting, says Tharun, also allowed him to explore the dynamics of friendship.

Think of buddy flicks in the Indian context and Dil Chahta Hai still stands out. Then followed Rock On and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. We haven’t had such memorable buddy films in Telugu. Tharun reasons, “Our cinema has, for long, followed the highs and lows of dramatic arcs of storytelling. When Pelli Choopulu released, people felt they were watching a true to real life romantic comedy. The digital platform has opened vistas for realistic storytelling, people want to see more such films. So there’s a resurgence of scenes and situations that seem natural in our films. I feel we are in transition. There was a phase when real-looking films, like those of Jandhyala and K Vishwanath, worked. Then there was a gap.”

He’s clear that while his first film was for a family audience, in this film he’s targeting the young crowd. Vishwak Sen and Anisha Ambrose star in the film, accompanied by newcomers selected after month-long auditions. The initial auditions were cumbersome, he remembers, with aspirants coming up with rehearsed, emotionally high monologues. He gave them situations that demanded them to keep it subtle and bring in their own personalities into the situation. Workshops with selected candidates followed.

Anamorphic lens

Tharun has retained the Pelli Choopulu music team — Vivek Sagar and the rest of the Tapeloop boys, but chose a different cinematographer to avoid monotony. Nikhet Bommi of Yuddham Sharanam came on board. “We used anamorphic lenses that were used in the ‘film’ days, which made film viewing enjoyable. The dark corners of the frame and the occasionally out of focus visuals added to the appeal. This is unlike the sharp spherical lenses used today,” explains Tharun.

His wife Lata took care of production design, the costume department chose clothes that worked on the principles of colour psychology for each character. Visual metaphors play a role.

At the private screening, someone commented that Ee Nagaraniki... is Tharun’s story. He retorts, “It’s not my story, but it’s relatable. A buddy film like Rock On about a group that makes western music won’t be relevant to Telugu cinema. But we have several short film groups. There’s a pattern. The guy who talks a lot is usually the scriptwriter, the one who looks good is the actor, the one who clicks photographs becomes the cinematographer. It’s a comedy of errors when they begin making films.”

A story like this is up our alley. Don’t believe it? Go online to see short films made by several Hyderabad groups, available on YouTube.