Director Samuthirakani who is coming up with the most anticipated Bro, gets candid about working in the “mama-alludu” combo project.
K. Ramya Sree
Pawan Kalyan and Sai Dharam Tej starrer Bro is all set to hit big screens on the 28th of this month and the mega fans can’t keep quiet anymore as the movie has the “mama-alludu” combo appear together on the big screen for the first time ever.
Directed by Samuthirakani, the movie is the official remake of the Tamil hit Vinodhaya Sitham. Although a remake, many changes have been made to the Telugu version with the help of writer-director Trivikram Srinivas.
The trailer of Bro released on July 23, crossed over 10 million views on YouTube, within a few hours of its release.
Samuthirakani returned to the direction in Telugu after almost 8 years with this remake. The secret behind Samuthirakani’s success in his career is that he takes things slow and planned. He is very organised and pre-planned about the work that he used to shoot three to four-five scenes in a single day between 7 am and 1 pm with Pawan Kalyan. Yes, you read it right. The actor-director himself confessed this speaking to us.
“We finished almost 2 months’ work in just 21 days. He used to come ready to the sets and it was very easy to shoot with him as he is also very quick. I shot the complete film in 53 days”
He told us exclusively that he didn’t pitch the story of Bro to anyone else apart from Pawan Kalyan. “In the first sitting, I happened to discuss with Pawan Kalyan garu about the response that I got for Vinodhaya Sitham. When I narrated the story to him, the end dialogue is what piqued the interest of the Powerstar. And everything went very smoothly. Within 10 minutes of the discussion, we spoke about changes to be made to the story, and in two days he gave his confirmation asking me to work on the script.”
An award-winning writer himself, for the Telugu version of Bro, he took help from Trivikram Srinivas in tweaking the story and to this, he humbly told The Pioneer that the making of Bro involved many people. “I wanted to make a good film and with everyone together. I have been travelling with Trivikram Anna since Ala Vaikuntapuramlo. Trivikram has a unique personality. More than a visual treat, the story will entertain audiences. In all 15 movies I helmed, Bro is the best that I could make. We face different situations in our lives, when Trivikram anna offered to help, I felt as if my father walked in and rendered his hand as though to uplift me.”
Do you know Tej is named Mark in this movie and the name was suggested by Pawan Kalyan himself? Samuthirakani shared, “We first thought of the name Chiranjeevi for Tej’s character. Later, Kalyan garu himself came up with “Markandeya”. And he said the name could be shortened to Mark.”
Speaking of Tej, as mentioned, the movie has a superstar and a rising star, and the duo come from the same family and are supremely close to each other off-screen. We wondered how the duo used to be on sets and the kind of bond they shared while shooting and who better than Samuthirakani who directed the duo to answer this? He answered, “They share a wonderful chemistry, and that chemistry is evidently visible on screen. Fix your cameras and the set and tell them the scene, Tej and Pawan know what to do, they just go and enact the scene very well.”
It is always easy to act in a movie where the director also donned the shoes of an actor. We asked him how he made his actors feel comfortable when something is not working out and to this, the Sambi Siva Sambi helmer shared, “My energy is high on sets and my actors can feel it, so I automatically get what I want for my story from the actors.”
While Ketika Sharma and Priya Prakash Varrier are playing the female leads in the movie, produced by People Media Factory and Zee Studios, it has music by Thaman S, cinematography by Sujith Vasudev, and editing by Naveen Nooli.
