With the rising reach of Youtube and other social media sites, bringing an independent short film to its target audience has certainly become easier.
Perhaps that is what Sabarish Kandregula, a BTech graduate, set out to do with his latest short film, The Viva which is riding the wave of popularity on Youtube. The 23-year old believes in keeping it simple which reflects in his group’s name Down2Earth films. His 13 minute short film The Viva was shot in a classroom with nine actors with the help of a steady mount camera.
The film is a comedy about viva tests conducted by an external examiner played by Harsha Chemudu and the hilarious answers given by students. The entire film, shot in just five hours, reminds one of his/her own external examiners. The USP of the film is its lead actor Harsha who carries off the role of the strict and irritated examiner perfectly. The comic answers and gestures of the students also manage to strike a chord with the viewers.
Ask him why he chose humour as the subject for his film, Sabarish says, “Harsha and I are childhood friends and we share a great rapport. Comedy comes naturally to Harsha and I had a strong concept. But, I wanted to make sure there is no vulgar comedy in our film.”
According to him, the greatest challenge was to connect to the audience of all age groups. “People tell me that my film is a stress buster and they watch it again and again. In fact, we later added sub-titles after we got a number of requests from non speakers of Telugu,” he adds.
The beginning
Sabarish has no formal training in film making, be it script writing, camera or editing. But, it was sheer passion along with self learning through which he has made 60 odd videos over a period of 10 years.
“I have made around 60 films since childhood, but I got a break when I made a video called ‘Life at Gitam’. After that, I made a spoof of a Telugu reality show Omkar in 2010 which got around five lakh hits on Youtube,” says Sabarish.
Sabarish is one of those people who quit a regular job to follow his dreams. “I was working at a software firm in Chennai and my passion for films only grew more. While I worked there, I started thinking of different concepts and developed a few scripts in those days,” recalls Sabarish, who filmed The Viva in June this year soon after he quit his job.
The short film is trending on Youtube with over 22 lakh hits in one month. It has also opened the doors of Tollywood for Sabarish and Harsha Chemudu.
Harsha Chemudu, a BTech Mechanical Engineering graduate, will soon be seen in about six Tollywood movies following his performance in The Viva.
He says, “People used to look at me and laugh. I used to feel inferior.
I had to motivate myself to actually become a comedian. Now, all I want is to make others laugh.”
His next film will be Avakai Biriyani fame Praneeth Babu’s upcoming movie Manasu Gathi Inthey.
Following the success of the film, the boys from Vizag are all set to make Hyderabad their second home.