Interview with Sonia

Interview with Sonia

Date: November 20, 2008, Hyderabad

Sonia who gave a stupendous performance as Shravs in her debut blockbuster Happy Days has become the dream date of Telugu youth overnight. Her second film Vinayakudu is all set to hit the marquee on November 21 in the USA and on 22 in India. Here is an exclusive interview with Sonia - Why did you accept Vinayakudu film? I accepted the Vinayakudu film in March 2008. I liked the script. It is an urbane story with interesting style of characterizations. It has an off-beat storyline and gripping narrative style. How do you compare your Shrav's character in Happy Days with the one in Vinayakudu? In the Happy Days film, I did not have many dialogues. I had to convey through expressions. But my role in Vinayakudu is very different. I come across like a very talkative girl in this film. I did a college girl character in Happy Days and I am playing the role of a working woman in Vinayakudu. I am daddy's girl in Vinayakudu who is ambitious and pursue whatever she wants. How different is Sai Kiran Adivi compared to Sekhar Kammula? Sai Kiran inherited patience from Sekhar Kammula. Both of them have loads of patience and explain us what they want. I have lots of respect and awe for Sekhar Kammula and my relationship with Sekhar Kammula is more like that of student and teacher. Sai Kiran is like a friend to me and I have more freedom on the sets with him. What do you think is the strength of Vinayakudu? The story is the main strength of the film. There will not be any exaggerated drama. It will be a smooth and feel good film. I can't say anymore about it as I have not watched the film yet. You had a bespectacled nerd and a fat guy proposing to you in Happy Days and Vinayakudu respectively. What is your criterion in your real life if you get a similar proposal? I might sound like a cliche. But it's true. Physical features are secondary for me. Looks are momentary and fade away after a while. What stays for the whole life is the character. I am looking for a guy with good character as my life partner than a guy with good looks. You are doing Tamil version of Happy Days. Are there any changes? I am doing the same character of Shravs in Tamil too. I am the only actor from Telugu cast who is working in the Tamil aswell. I don't see any major differences between Telugu and Tamil version. How do you react to the fan following? I had a dream launch with Happy Days film. The kind of response I got was flattering. After doing Happy Days, I realized that I got some in-born talent in me. I am very happy when somebody recognize and praise me. A couple of my friends talked to you when you were partying in pubs. Don't you feel that people who approach you like that are invading your privacy? I am OK with people coming and talking to me. Since I acted in film, it is only natural for people to want to talk to me. I remember those days when I wanted to talk to Chiranjeevi when Aapadbhandavudu film was shot in our St. Ann's college. When somebody says hi to me I treat them well and reply them. But I don't like it when people call me Shravs from behind and expect me turn around and acknowledge them. In the last interview, you expressed you wish to start a flower shop? Yes. The plan is still on. I am looking at taking a local franchise of a big national level florist chain. What is your materialistic dream? I love to have an independent or a penthouse. I want to have lot of space in my house so that I can have plants and pets. I am a pet lover. I have puppy now and I also want to have a cat and rabbits. I don't want to live in a match-box kind of place. What about a car. You still wanna depend on cabs? I bought a decent second-hand car recently and I started driving. I am happy with it. My dream car is BMW convertible. But Hyderabad roads are not ready yet for my dream car, I guess. You roles in Happy Days and Vinayakudu are similar. Don't you think you will get branded? I don't know my potential as an actress yet. I don't like to be called as either commercial heroine or an off-beat heroine. I would love to do the role in films like Raincoat. I wanna do roles that inspire emotions in people. I want to do roles with sheer depth. Who is your role model? I like the way Genelia is handling her career. I would like to model my career like Tabu by balancing between art films and commercial films. I love Amitabh Bachchan the way he moulded his career spanning so many decades. Curly hair and spaghetti style is your brand now. Do you straighten your hair if the role demands it? Yes. My hair is curly by nature. There are some moments where I got it straightened for a brief time in the past. I don't mind straightened hair. Are you tensed about the release of Vinayakudu? I was tensed up yesterday night. Not any more. Just waiting to watch the premiere tonight.

Interview with Gowtam Menon

Interview with Gowtam Menon	Date: November 8, 2008, Hyderabad
Gowtam Vasudev Menon is all set to entertain the crowds in Telugu and Tamil with his latest offering Surya s/o Krishnan (Vaaranam Aayiram in Tamil) which features Surya is two roles. The music of the film is a huge chartbuster. Idlebrain.com had an exclusive interview with Gowtam Menon. Here are the excerpts - What is Surya s/o Krishnan all about? Surya s/o Krishnan is about the life journey of a youngster and what he saw in his life. There is also a father character that influences his son. It is a semi-biographical film that is inspired by incidents in my own life and from the lives of the people I know. We do generally see these films of biographical nature mostly in Hollywood? Yes. But I feel that audiences are universal. A film that’s hit in Hollywood is also becomes a hit in India. Surya s/o Krishnan is an emotional film that would be identified by everybody. What is the reason for casting Surya? I saw the film a couple days back. I can confidently say that no other actor would do justice to the character like Surya does. That is the reason why I can’t remake this film in Hindi and Telugu as we don’t have Surya in other languages. I don’t need actors like Kamal Hassan and Aamir Khan as this film does not need heavy histrionics. It needs very subtle acting which Surya is extremely good at. Surya is a director’s actor. What is reason for choosing Sameera Reddy as heroine? I am looking for a tall girl whom Surya would feel inferior and intimidated to approach and propose. Sameera is the right choice for that character. She has a brief role in this film. Which one is your favorite song in the album? I love all songs. A lot of work has gone into making them. The album incorporates the music I grew up with. If I shall pinpoint any particular song, I prefer Nalonu Pongenu Narmada which is dominated with guitar strings. My next favorite is ‘Monna Kanipinchavu’, which also has guitar domination. However, the instant hit of the album has been ‘Edane Koyyake’ which has lead guitar dominating it. Edane Koyake has been shown on Channel V repeatedly. How do you feel about it? They say that it is the first south Indian film song to be featured that way. I feel proud about it. The credit should go to the music director Harris Jayaraj. Your films have Hollywood tinge. Are you inspired by Hollywood flicks? I grew up watching a lot of Indian films especially that of Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt. I can tell you each and every dialogue of all Raj Kapoor films. I also love all good films made by south Indian directors like Mani Ratnam and K Viswanath. If I have to name any Hollywood director, it is Martin Scorsese who influenced me a lot. I also love Dead Poet’s Society (1989) film. But none of my films were inspired by Hollywood in terms of storylines. For example, people commented that my film Pachaikili Muthucharam is inspired by Hollywood flick Derailed. But I adapted it from the book ‘Deraild’ which is also the base for the Hollywood flick. I made it before the Hollywood version is made. I sit and write my own scripts and taken some inspirations from real life. All my films have original thoughts. What is your next project? I am directing and producing my own film with Trisha as heroine. It is a yuppie city based film that features incidents between four boys and three girls. The story of the film is about the youth who pass out from college and they were about settle down. What is your next straight film in Telugu? My next straight film in Telugu is with Mahesh Babu as hero. Manjula produces the film on Indira Productions banner. AR Rehman will compose music for the first time to a film of mine. It is a yuppie and trendy love story. I gave the bound script to Manjula. They are getting the dialogue version ready in Telugu. What about a film with Ram Charan Teja? It will happen during the end of year 2009. Can you sum up what people can expect from Surya s/o Krishnan? Come to the film expecting an emotional ride/trip. You can see a part of you in the character of Surya. This film will make you cry, smile and fall in love. You will leave the theater with a heavy heart (in a positive sense).

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla, Freida Pinto, Ankur Vikal Director: Danny Boyle (Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India)) Music: AR Rehman Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle Editing: Chris Dickens Rating: Enetertainment Quotient: 70% Genre: Crime/Romance Runtime: 120 min MPAA rating: R Synopsis: Jamal (Dev Patel) is an orphan from the slums of Mumbai. He gets to attend the game show ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ when he is 18. Surprisingly he starts giving the right answers till he gets into the final round. And all these questions have relevance to certain incidents happened in his life. The game show host and cops suspect that Jamal cheated in the show. The rest of the story is all about how he proves his innocence and wins his lady love that’s been playing hide and seek with him since his childhood. Actors: The kids who did the roles of Salim, Jamal and Latika are adorable. They are the best in the film than the main leads. Among the notable Indian actors, Saurabh Shukla is the best. Ankur Vikal is excellent. Anil Kapoor is pretty natural as a wicked and biased host of the game show. After some point of time, we start hating him. Dev Patel is adequate. Irfan Khan played similar kind of roles earlier. Hence it is a cake walk for him. Story – screenplay – direction: The story of this film is adapted from a book Q & A written by an Indian author Vikas Swaroop. It is an interesting story that has two parallel plots interwoven into a game show. Direction of the film is brilliant. The screenplay is extraordinary. This film combines both arts and commerce. It has a highly realistic treatment to it with an undercurrent box office winning formula. The following scenes are worth mentioning: 1. The cop chasing the kids in slums 2. Young Jamal jumping into shit pond to get an autograph of Amitabh. 3. Young Salim asking his boss for 50 rupees when his boss asks him to be professional. 4. Jamal acting as tour guide in Taj Mahal 5. Darshan to Ghanashyam scene 6. Jamal’s conversation with the blind in which he comes to know about the photo on 100 dollar bill. 7. Salim taking the life of the guy who bothered him. 8. Jamal trying to steal chapati on a moving train 9. Jamal not choosing B as an answer for the penultimate question Commercial screenplay payoffs in the film (typical Indian): 1. Spaced flashback narration: It has three threads of game show, police interrogation and flashback simultaneously run. 2. Love story: Jamal loves Latika unconditionally. She goes missing from him. And he finds her. She changes hands and is used by many men. But he stills love her. And all ends well in the end. 3. Salim character: Salim is the elder brother of Jamal. He is protective of his brother, at the same time egoistic. He behaves selfish at times and finally becomes an admirable person. 4. Three Musketeers Thread: The beginning of the movie has a teacher telling the students about ‘Three Musketeers’. Jamal considers his brother, himself and Latika to be three musketeers. The final question in the game show is about the name of the third musketeer. It was a beautifully written thread. 5. Mental recall: Jamal is recognized by the blind boy, Latita and Salim at different points of life journey. 6. Biased host of the game show: The host of the game show is a biased man. He does not want Jamal to win. He goes to the extent of apprehending Jamal to the cops. Hence the last two questions in the game show give huge commercial pay off when Jamal nails the host with the right answers though he does not know if it’s right. 7. Spirit of human triumph: Triumph is important than winning money. Hence he never backs out in the middle for money. Jamal risks it till the last round as it is all about the spirit of human triumph. Some of the unconvincing points: 1. Three Musketeers lesson in a school attended by slum boys. 2. Jamal not knowing about Gandhi’s photo on Indian note. The debate of India being shown as a pathetic country in this film: When somebody is doing a film on a slum boy, it is bound to show the hard reality in slum areas. That does not mean that India has been projected in the wrong way. When somebody watched ‘City of God’ (reviiew here) which shows the bad side of Brazil country, one expects it to be a poor country with little scope for improvement. But actually Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world along with Russia, India and China (BRIC countries). India is not for the people who judge it by watching fictional movies. Hence, let’s not bother about it. Other technical departments: Background score by AR Rehman is peppy and energetic (especially the beat scored by kids chasing scenes in the initial part of the movie). Cinematography is excellent. Editing is superb with no dull moment. This film shows Mumbai slums in a magnificent way. Analysis: Slumdog Millionaire is an Indian film at heart with Indian emotions catering to Indian sensibilities. This film balances arts with commerce. It is also the best example of presenting a story in a realistic way without missing the formula. The best part in this film is the screenplay and most of the credit for this screenplay should go to the Indian writer Vikas Swaroop who wrote ‘Q & A’ book. Direction of the film is world class and narration balances the sensible humor and subtle tragedy. On a whole Slumdog Millionaire is a must see film and will put India on the world cinema map like Gandhi (1982) film.

Telugu film Photo Gallery Drona - Nitin & Priayamani