What Prudhvi said is completely wrong: Laila director

Director Ram Narayan entered into the industry as music director, ended up as director and made his debut with ‘Battala Ramaswamy Biopikku’. Now, he is directing Vishwak Sen in ‘Laila.’ He talks about his struggles, what he likes and also his reaction to Prudhvi’s political comments…
 
suresh kavirayani

 
Ram Narayan is the director of ‘Laila’ and this is his second film. He made his debut with ‘Battala Ramaswamy Biopikku’ which is a comedy drama with some witty dialogues. “I prefer naughty jokes, but the visuals are good,” said Ram Narayan. He entered into the industry as a music director, but ended up as director. “I composed music for a few films, including ‘Lavakusa,’ Varun Sandesh film,” said Ram Narayan.
Now, he is coming up with ‘Laila’. “Initially, I narrated the story to a couple of young actors, though liked the story, they did not prefer to play the lady role, because they have to remove the moustache and also a few things to do,” said Ram Narayan about the story. He added that in recent times, when he was searching to do a story, he got this female get-up idea.
One of his friends took him to producer Sahu and then he suggested actor Vishwak Sen for this story. “As I told, a couple of actors rejected this story because of the female get-up, so I didn’t mention it and narrated the story to Vishwak Sen, till interval and then said about the female get-up. Luckily, he wanted to play a female role. So he liked the story and immediately accepted it,” said Ram Narayan about how this story landed Vishwak Sen.
The director said that he likes the Old City culture. Hence, he roped in Gullu Dada for this film. “They are famous in the Old City and they played important roles in my film. They speak a Hindi-Telugu mix and it came out very nice,” said the director. Abhimanyu Singh and Prudhvi also played important roles.
Talking about actor Prudhvi and his goat comments which became viral, when asked how many goats are there in the film? “There are goats in the film, but whatever number he said is wrong. He should not talk like that and there is only one scene between Prudhvi and Vishwak. Abhimanyu Singh is doing mutton business, so he owned these goats,” he clarified about goats. He added that the team is not responsible for Prudhvi’s comments. “The numbers are wrong and he doesn’t have scenes with Vishwak; it is his personal opinion,” said the director.
After Vishwak Sen accepted the story, they did a look test for him in the female get-up. “Initially, we did a look test and he sent it to a few people, which they liked. When the actual shooting started in his lady get-up, he made a video call to his father; he couldn’t make out who this lady was? Then Vishwak revealed it and the next day the entire family came to shoot and they enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun while shooting,” said Ram Narayan.
Vishwak turned lyric writer with this film. “Music director gave me the tune and I sent it to Vishwak. He called and showed the lyrics and asked about it. I said the lyrics are nice, then he said he wrote it. Initially, I couldn’t believe it, but he changed a few lines on the spot. Actually he penned two songs for the film.”
Akanksha Sharma is the female lead, while Kamakshi is also there in the film. “Kamakshi played a special role which she only could only do. I didn’t reveal her role in the trailer, but it’s a special one and she justified it. Initially, I had my doubts whether she would accept it or not, but when I approached her, she agreed immediately,” said the director about Kamakshi.
The director said that he likes comedy and he wanted to continue with the same. “I like situational comedy, rather than writing punch dialogues. I never do punch comedy, as I feel that situational comedy gives more laughs. In this film he preferred it.”
Talking about his future projects, he said he wants to focus on this film and once after release, he will think about his next film.