Regular stuff bores me: Ghazi director

Imagine a debutant director winning accolades from all the big stars for his concept and ideation? Well, that’s what Sankalp Reddy has done with ‘Ghazi’, which opens this Friday in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The war-at-sea patriotic film narrates the mysterious sinking of Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi off India's eastern seaboard during the 1971 war.

Sankalp, born and brought up in Hyderabad, wanted to venture into an untried realm and that is when he hit upon the idea of ‘Ghazi’. “I had a few stories with me and was working on them since 2012. But when I heard the story of a submarine, which was lying on the shores of Vizag beach, it intrigued me to a pen a script (around it).

Since I have a good command over CG, I thought of making a film under 25 lakh for YouTube, but ran out of funds mid-way. Nonetheless, through producer P Ram Mohan, the script went to PVP, who in turn roped in Daggubati Rana. The rest is history.” Making a period drama is no cakewalk but Sankalp reveals that he had help from all quarters.

“I had the luxury of experienced technicians like Sreekar Prasad (Editor), Madhie (DOP) helping me every way possible and proven actors like Rana, Om Puri, Kay Kay Menon and Atul Kulkarni lending their support at the creative level. I was sure that if I get the CG right, rest of the things would be in check while filming. If you believe in something, you should attempt it.

I did a lot of research on the script, spoke to ex-navy personnel, how a submarine operates, etc and all these factors helped me on sets,” he points out. Sankalp, moving forward, wants to delve into deeper waters as far as genres are concerned. “I want to be the best. Regular stuff bores me and my future endeavours, apart from being different, will be on a huge-scale,” he promises, signing off.