A school for film making and appreciation

Noted filmmaker Geetha Krishna’s schools for filmmaking aspirants in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are all set to open this year. The filmmaker shares his vision for the institutes and his views on contemporary cinema

Having worked with well known director K Viswanath, the maker of ‘Sagara Sangama’ and ‘Swathi Muthyam’, which shot Kamal Haasan into fame, Geetha Krishna is now launching schools of global standards to teach filmmaking and, more importantly, a short course on film appreciation.

He always wanted to make off-beat films with different concepts and style. His first film ‘Sankeerthana’ starring Girish Karnad, Nagarjuna and Ramyakrishna was an award-winning musical, which centered on a forbidden love between a poet-singer from a fishermen community and a dancer from an orthodox family.

His next film ‘Kokila’, a mega box office hit, was a suspense thriller narrating the story of a TV singer who gets inadvertently tangled in a murder conspiracy. Central attraction of the film is the mystifying effect produced on the viewer through a cornea transplant which is instrumental in unraveling the conspiracy. This movie was inspired by the ‘Eyes of Laura Mars’.

“There is abundant talent in this state. Boys and girls after obtaining high-end skills in technology want to do creative work and runaway from routine jobs. They are into art, digital sounds, animation and social work with a specific purpose. I want to tap this talent either into acting, making a film, set designing, special effects and animation,’’ said Geetha Krishna.

The school will not only teach acting and film making, but will also offer a comprehensive course in fashion designing in different parts of the state.

Quoting Marilyn Monroe that there was no business like show business, the director said that he would offer meaningful careers to young boys and girls, who in turn may churn out some meaningful movies. He went on to say that people are fed up with run-of-the-mill movies with song and dance and stupid fighting scenes, which often drew flak from international critics.

“The international film institutes would come up at Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, and fashion and glamour related courses would be set-up in smaller towns. The institute is tying up with a US-based university and will have expert faculty. Well known film makers have agreed to give guest lectures. Every year we will make a film with the students and pick the best full length feature film, which will then be produced,’’ he added.

The institute will open in Hyderabad by October end and in Visakhapatnam by mid-November.