In safe hands

Floored by his short film ‘Two Sat Under The Cuckoo’s Nest,’ star maker P Ram Mohan decided to check if Viswadev Rachakonda, grandson of the legendary writer Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastry, was interested in feature film acting.

The Vizag born and bred youngster obviously was, as since childhood he only believed in ‘entertaining’ people around him. “Be it through narrating tales, dance or strumming a guitar, my early life revolved around impressing and winning people’s love,” flashbacks Viswadev who is playing the lead in Ram Mohan’s ‘Pittagoda,’ which opens in cinemas this Saturday.

However, when the producer promised that he would introduce him through his production house Sunshine Cinemas, he had no script. “I’ve met him in early 2013 and it was only after some time that Anudeep bounced him the idea of ‘Pittagoda’. He liked it and felt that I can pull off the lead role, but there was no bound script as such.

As it took time for the script to be fleshed out, I have joined a firm in Pune. For one year I kept shuttling between Pune and Hyderabad to be in touch with Sunshine Cinemas,” he reveals, adding that after the script was locked, he bid adieu to his job and fully concentrated on his part, Tippu, a carefree guy who has no fear of future, in the film.

“Even before the trail shoot began, I’ve been to Godavarikhani, Karimnagar to understand the body language of the youth over there. I’ve also watched a lot of Telangana accent based videos on the internet besides sharply observing Anudeep (who is from Sangareddi) to get the language right,” adds Viswadev.

‘Pittagoda’ narrates the tale of four good for nothing guys (Viswadev, Srihan, Raju and Ram) from Godavarikhani, who find happiness in silly things. The comic caper takes a turn after Tippu falls in love with Divya (Punarnavi). Viswadev admits to have related with the part. “I used to be the carefree guy while in engineering. I along with my batch used to hang out at this parapet wall near the beach from 1 pm to 2 am frequently.

I now keep wondering what we used to talk except for pulling each other’s legs. Our seniors used to come over with their girlfriends to the beach much to our envy. In fact, we had a crush on their girlfriends,” he smiles, admitting that he brought his own experiences to Tippu.

He is grateful that Godavarikhani people treated him as one of their own. “Be it the passersby or the staff of the place where we’ve stayed put, people had an instant connect with me. I was kind of surprised by it because I’ve always felt that I don’t look like a Telugu guy at the outset,” he muses.

Moving forward, Viswadev wants to associate himself with quality cinema. “Ram Mohan sent me another script recently and I liked it, but as of now I’m focused on promoting ‘Pittagoda’ at length,” he ends.