I understand production better

Testing waters by producing Neelakanta’s ‘Maaya’, a film which is not his directorial venture, Madhura Sreedhar believes that as a producer he understands the tricks of the trade better than most others do. “While I’m still learning direction, I’m happy with my work as a producer. I understand the whole production procedure better than many others in the industry and believe in meticulous planning. I can proudly vouch that I belong in the top three when it comes to expertise regarding production,” he says in a chat with Hans Talkies.

So, what prompted him to produce a film which is not his own script? “After the failure of ‘Back Bench Student’, I took a break, hoping to endorse scripts which enliven me. Around the same time I felt why I can’t emulate people like Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali who made their mark as directors first before encouraging new talent,” he says, while adding, “I’ve been in constant touch with Neelakanta for quite some time. We wanted to produce each other’s films. When he narrated ‘Maaya’ to me in 2009, I felt the work was one of its kind. Finally, we took it on floors last year.”

While the film may belong to sci-fi genre, Sreedhar says that a layman can understand the proceedings without scratching his head. “It’s told in a simple way,” he avers.“I’ve targeted ‘A’ and ‘B’ exhibition centres till now, but ‘Maaya’ will be lapped up by ‘C’ centres too. After we got the first copy of the film, we showed it to some people and took their feedback. And once we wrapped it up, we wanted to be honest with the way we promote it. We showed the film to distributors who gave us some good screens across Hyderabad.”

Assuring that screenplay will define the film; he says it’s not a run-of-the-mill story. “Even though it breaks away from the commercial norms – six fights, six songs and 12 comedy sequences – it’s still a commercial film that people would embrace. I held a special screening the other day to directors like MS Raju, Vijayendra Prasad and Boyapati Sreenu. They heaped high praise on the film and said that good days are ahead for Telugu cinema.”

He is betting high on the fresh faces – Harshvardhan Rane, Avantika Mishra, Sushma and Nandini Rai – that he has roped in for the film. “An experience like ‘Maaya’ will be heightened only with new faces,” he believes. “Recent successful films like ‘Uyyala Jampala’ and ‘Oohalu Gusagusalade’ prove that the audience is open to encouraging new faces. We, as filmmakers, failed to encourage new talent like Mollywood and Kollywood, but its better late than never.”

As of now, he has put direction plans on the backburner. “While my film ‘Sachin’, a story inspired by tainted cricketer Sreesanth’s life, is still in the scripting stages, I would take a call on taking ‘Dhaana Karna’ (remake of ‘Vicky Donor’) on to sets after the release of my other production ‘Ladies & Gentlemen’,” he says. As an afterthought he adds, “My distributors want me to cast an established hero in ‘Dhaana Karna’ whereas I am keen on roping in a new face.”