Nela Ticket director Kalyan Krishna: I’ve been Ravi Teja’s fan for the longest time

Director Kalyan Krishna’s career has seen great success, first with Nagarjuna’s 2016 film, Soggade Chinni Nayana followed by Rarandoi Veduka Chudham starring Naga Chaitanya in 2017. Ahead of the release of his third film Nela Ticket, which hits the screens worldwide on May 25th, Kalyan opens up in this exclusive chat with Hindustan Times and spoke about the experience of working with Ravi Teja, making a family-friendly film and reuniting with Nagarjuna next for a sequel to his first film.

Nela Ticket is a very dear project, begins Kalyan because it was supposed to be his first film. “I had pitched the idea even before I started work on Soggade. Ravi Teja liked the idea but he couldn’t immediately commit to the project as he was working on another film then and he had one more project after that. He said he will do the film but it’d take him at least 9 months. So he suggested that I wait or work on another project if an opportunity comes along. In the interim, I developed an idea and took it to Nagarjuna sir and that’s how Soggade was born,” said Kalyan.

“The inspiration for the film was born out of a simple idea. The joy of living amid people and I’ve delivered this thought through Ravi’s character who plays an orphan. I’ve heard people say they want to go on a holiday alone. I seriously wonder how such people can even think of travelling alone because our lives will be so incomplete if we don’t have people around us. In the film, Ravi swears by this thought of living amid people and he’d go to any length to protect them in his life. Character-wise, I believe it’s a role Ravi hasn’t played so far and audiences will like it. He’s mostly fun, but there are instances where, as the audience, you’ll see a different side to the character.”

On teaming up with Ravi Teja, who is considered one of the best entertainers in Telugu filmdom, Kalyan said it was a joy to work with him. “I’ve been his fan for the longest time. There are some roles that only he could play and one such character is what you’ll see in Nela Ticket. He’s every director’s delight to work with. His amazing improvisation skill came in very handy on many occasions. There were moments where I didn’t say cut (even after the shot was over) just to see what more he can bring to the table. He’s someone who can surprise you with the way he delivers a scene.”

Kalyan also clarified that he didn’t have to make changes to the script to suit Ravi’s image. “Apart from changes that we made for commercial reasons, I didn’t tweak the script for Ravi. When I developed the idea, I didn’t have any actor in mind. Once Ravi liked the idea, I worked on the script while running in mind audiences’ expectations from Ravi and his films.”

Just like his previous films, Kalyan assures Nela Ticket will be high on entertainment. “With Ravi on board, I can’t afford to make it less entertaining. There’s plenty of humour but we’ve also focused on the drama angle as the script demanded it.” Quiz Kalyan if he’s happy making commercial pot-boilers or if he’s game to experiment, he said that it’s too early to break the flow and do something different. “I’m a huge fan of films like Pellichoopulu and Arjun Reddy and I also want to make films in that space, but I think I’m happy where I’m now. I don’t want to experiment yet and I think there’s still time left.”

Next, Kalyan will team up with Nagarjuna for Bangararaju, a sequel to Soggade Chinni Nayana. “The script is ready but it needs some fine-tuning. I have to meet Nagarjuna sir in this context soon and once he gives me a go ahead, I think we will be good to go.”

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