Suku Purvaj, the man behind some of the most exciting films in recent Telugu cinema, speaks exclusively to The Pioneer about his creative process, his inspirations and what’s next for this talented filmmaker!
suresh kavirayani
sureshkavirayani@gmail.com
Suku Purvaj, a gold medalist from Andhra University in Fine Arts, turned out to be the director of four Telugu films. It’s an interesting story when talking about his debut film, Shukra, released in the year 2019. “It’s a thriller and we were all excited as we announced the release date and even held an event before the release day,” reminisces Suku.
But at the same time the pandemic happened and most of the theaters were all closed. “My film ran successfully for a couple of years, but because the lockdown theatres closed. We made the film with a budget of 75 lakhs, but it ran successfully on Amazon Prime Video and collected an amount of Rs 4.2 crore,” said Purvaj.
A filmmaker approached him for the second film. “They liked my Shukra and approached me for another film, which I made, Matarani Maunamidi. This is a horror film and after the film was completed and ready to hit the screens, at that time the second lockdown happened,” said Purvaj. Though his films did not have a big-screen release, he was never disappointed. Reason—he got a good name as director. Hailing from Visakhapatnam, Purvaj completed an MBA. Before that he completed his graduation in Fine Arts from Andhra University. “I was a gold medalist from the university,” he said. “From my childhood, I was into writing and formation scenes,” he said. He added that in his third class he wrote a play in school.
Purvaj learnt all the skills that are needed for cinema. “I learned at Raj Kapoor Memorial, Pune, about photography and acting,” he said. “I feel it is my destiny to become a director and I am confident that I can show my talent and in the coming years, people will talk about me,” he said.
Now, Purvaj is coming up with a superhero film titled A Masterpiece. “The film is completed and the VFX work is pending. A UK-based company is doing the VFX and once it is completed, I want to release it in the coming summer,” he said. He added that Aravind Krishna, Aashu Reddy, Jyothi Pooraj, Jayaprakash, Manish Gillada and many others played important roles.
“I have taken the story from mythology. From Vishnu Purana and Ramayana, I took a few points and added some fictional stories to it,” said Purvaj. In the Ramayana Dasaradha is the king and one of the finest ministers of his is Aryasumantra. “In my film, the superhero is the great, great grandson of Aryasumantra,” he said. With the mythology mixed with the present situation, Purvaaj wrote this superhero story. “A means Aryasumantra; that’s why my title is A Masterpiece,” he said.
The film is pending for the VFX, so he started another thriller called Killer. “In my earlier films, I wanted to act, but because of a few circumstances, I couldn’t act. But now, I am producing the film on my own, so I decided to act in this Killer,” he said. The first schedule is already completed.
Though he hails from Visakhapatnam, many of his films few portions were shot here. “My superhero film was shot in Araku, Visakhapatnam, Vadodara, Hyderabad and many other places,” he said. He is planning to release the superhero film in Hindi too. He made the film with a budget of Rs 15 crores. “I am very confident that my superhero film will definitely enthrall everyone,” said.
When asked about the name Suku Purvaj, which is not familiar to Telugu people. He said his actual name is Suresh Kumar. So he has taken the first two letters from the name ‘Suku.’ “I met a Swamji at a village near Visakhapatnam and he gave me the name Purvaj. From then onwards I started as Suku Purvaj,” he said.
