The Srinivas and Shaurya duo is back again with Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi (PAPA). Ahead of the film’s release, The Pioneer rang up the director for an exclusive chat, where he discussed PAPA and its theme, working with Naga Shaurya, importance of being original, and more.
Amartya Smaran
Actor and director Avasarala Srinivas’ third directorial venture titled, Phalana Abbayi Phalana Ammayi (PAPA) starring Naga Shaurya, Malvika Nair, and Avasarala Srinivas in important roles, is gearing up for a theatrical release on March 17.The music is composed by Kalyani Malik, who delivered chartbuster hits for Srinivas’ blockbuster debut film Oohalu Gusagusalade(2014).
PAPA marks the return of Srinivas -Naga Shaurya’s hit combination. The duo had earlier worked on Oohalu Gusagusalade(2014) (Naga Shauray’s breakthrough film and Srinivas’s directorial debut) and Jyo Achyutananda(2016).
“If you can make people laugh, you can make people happy!” shared the filmmaker talking about what piqued his interest in filmmaking as a child.There’s no doubt that he’s swearing by the line he uttered in the interview.
Excerpts from the interview:
You’re back to directing films after a long gap! Was that something that you did deliberately or it just happened?
I usually write my own scripts and for me writing a film is a very personal thing. It has to be motivating for me to write it. I write my scripts alone! It depends on what I’m feeling at that moment and whether I really want to tell this story. I did finish the script in 2017-2018 and we started filming in 2019. It took an extra year to set this up, but by the time it came to a point where we had to travel to the U.S. to finish the film, Covid happened.
The Embassies were closed for two years and this is a film that’s set in the U.S. and UK. A significant part of the film takes place in India as well. We didn’t get visas and kept waiting. The visas happened last year and we finished the film last year.
You’re collaborating with Naga Shaurya after many years. How important do you think it is to collaborate with people whom you strike a chord with?
When I watch a film, the first thing that comes to my mind is the actor’s performance. That’s what draws you into a film and what Shaurya has contributed to my films, be it Oohalu Gusagusalade or Jyo Achyutananda or PAPA is something that I’m really proud of.
If somebody asks me, “Hey! Name one good thing in your film?”. The first thing that comes to my mind is Shaurya’s performance. Now that we had trouble getting visas, we were shooting in the UK with a limited 10 member crew. As a result, there are things that go wrong everyday but one thing that I was sure that would not go wrong was Shaurya’s performance. He really put his heart out in this film and I thank him for that.
What is so special about Shaurya that you cast him often?
I think he trusts me a lot. I barely remember even one shot where when I asked him to make a choice, he wasn’t excited about it. He is always enthusiastic about the new inputs that he gets from me. Not even once did he say, “Sir! I think this is a better choice.” And that enthusiasm and openness to feedback is something that I really like. Whenever I say something, I think he believes that it makes for a better film.
What can the audience expect from PAPA?
It’s not going to be a rom-com. When I set out to make this film, I was consuming a lot of Indie-American films where there’s very minimal dialogue or even if there’s dialogue it doesn’t sound as if it’s written for film. It’s just like people conversing with each other.
It is as if the director asks the actors to improvise on the sets and the actors have come up with the lines themselves. And we wanted to record sound on sets because dubbing always kind of gets some artificiality in the sound. This film is more about relationships and you’ll find it very different from my previous films. I attempted a docu-indie style of filmmaking with this one.
What’s your take on male-female best friends dynamic?
I think you can call yourself anything and it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t matter if you call yourselves best friends or soul mates. All that matters is what are the barriers that you’ve built between yourself and love, and how much effort does it take you to love the other person. Everything else can be changed. If you are best friends and never had feelings for the person right now but tomorrow if things change, it still can be done. You can have romantic love for that person, it’s not difficult.
Speaking of your influences, Woody Allen comes at the top of the list! Let’s delve into how his films or humour helped you find your own style?
I agree that he was a big influence when I first started watching films. I really enjoyed his films. When I wrote my first film, some of his influence kind of crept in. I don’t think I carried that forward into my second film or PAPA. I think you have to be true to yourself and if you call yourself influenced by somebody else, you’re subconsciously not being original. Right now, I don’t watch any of his films and I don’t watch many films at all actually. I’m trying to stay completely neutral and not get carried away by certain styles.
I’m just trying to see what comes out of it. I’m open to something natural coming out of that silence. One of the things that keeps you going in the long run is trying to find your own voice and not trying to sound like somebody else. It’s okay to ape somebody whom you respect but I think you will grow out of it on your own.
You penned the Telugu dialogues for Avatar: The Way of Water. How daunting was it to take it up?
The real challenge was to make it sound Telugu. Avatar was actually quite challenging. In the end, I didn’t want the audience to come out and make fun of the film like how they used to about a decade ago. Also, I didn’t want the filmmakers to think that their film is compromised. When I started writing for the film on day one, I remember thinking, “What did I get myself into? This is so difficult”(laughs). However, the more I got to know about the Avatar universe, it became a little easier.
In today’s day and age, would you still suggest people attend film schools?
Yes! 100 percent(haha).
Don’t you think the exorbitant tuition stops people from going to film schools?
When I say film school, I don’t mean like a school where you pay a fee and get a degree but there are some things that I think are useful before making a film. One thing is the craft of writing, because over the past few years I have seen films that have not worked for some of my friends because they did something wrong with the script.
Once you have the knowledge of screenwriting, you can go back to your basics and see where you went wrong. When I talk to people who make films when they write scripts sometimes, the map is so blurry. The final copy that you see is not what they set out to make and some of it works and some don’t. It is good to have a formal knowledge of the right approach to make a film.
My days at Lee Strasberg made me fall in love with the craft of acting. Whenever I am directing my actors, I have so much satisfaction like, “Did I really create this person out of this script!”. It helps you get back to the basics and see what’s that you’re not doing right when things go wrong.
