HYDERABAD: There was a separate Telangana state movement in 1969 and another in 2001. The only difference between two movements is KCR. K Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister of the 29th state is the man who made Telanganites wake up to the sunrise of a new state on June 2, 2014, a date that will remain as the most memorable day for 35 million people.
Two film aficionados Madhura Sreedhar Reddy and Raj Kandukuri, who are staunch followers of the chief minister, strongly believe that it is the bona fide vigour in him that has made him a trailblazer with a vision, for he is the man who brought in a revolution, which is etched in the history with stones.
Hailing from Warangal, the duo says it is not the regional connect, but the progressiveness of the state because of the minister inspired them to come up with the movie. “As a leader, he has those qualities which can make the silver screen shine brighter and inspire his millions of followers stronger than ever. We thought we would focus only on the strong and invincible qualities in him, which made him, face the challenges and succeed,” they share and further voice that they didn’t want to take a decision for themselves as KCR is a public property. “He is a people’s leader. His family’s approval, his approval and his followers’ approval matters a lot to us,” they clearly share.
After watching MS Dhoni, which speaks about the Mahi’s journey as a captain cool made their intentions of making the film stronger. “Our rough thoughts was instilled with positivity and made our thoughts firmer,” Sreedhar voices.
The movie is going to be from KCR’s perspective of how he faced the challenges and overcame the impediments. “Our generation knows what kind of a committed leader he is and how the revolution took place. The future generations may Google and learn, but knowing the struggle through a leader’s perspective on celluloid will surely inspire them too,” Sreedhar shared.
Before the thoughts of what are characters that are going to be present in the movie pops up, the director and producer enlighten that roles like Narendra Modi, CBN, Sonia Gandhi, YSR and many more are going to be present. “We are going to have all the characters who were involved in the movement, but from the leader’s perspective,” they inform. “No controversies involved, only perspectives of the hero,” they urge firmly.
Scripting is in progress and its being done in a zealous method. Tirupati Reddy, Sreehar Reddy’s father, had witnessed the 1969 movement from up and close. He saw KCR as a teenager and how he was inspired, above all how he had evolved into a unswerving front runner.
“We are working on the script for six hours every day. We are taking my dad’s points. We are going to take historian’s inputs. We are going to consult his family members and of course, towards the end, the boss himself will give his valid points, which would be incorporated. We are ensuring its accurate and non-disputable,” share the history read duo, who are also global film lovers. Raj and Sreedhar guarantee goosebumps. They say the film is going to be on global standards. “He has followers from other states too. With this film, he is going to garner fans from every nook and corner,” they assure.
Ask them about their camaraderie, they laugh and say that they share a guru-sishya bond. “He was more into direction than me. Six years ago, I wanted to meet him for an audio. There were many, but I wanted him, considering his zeal and academic background. He was the first one, who I could connect in no time and there has been no looking back. I had decided that day that he would be a part of all my projects,” Raj beams. They have been a part of movies like Ladies and Gentleman and many more. Their latest success was Pellichoopulu.
“His ever-smiling face, approachability, the positivity is what has made us close to each other. In 10 years of being in the industry, I have only two best friends. Raj Kandukuri and Kalamandir Kalyan,” Sreedhar shares in his soft-spoken voice.
While Raj Kandukuri’s childhood dream of entering the industry was fulfilled with his father D Sivananda Murthy’s script on Gautham Buddha, which also fetched him Nandi Award, Sreedhar Reddy, a IIT Madras gold medalist left his fancy job and ventured into the silver screen business by starting Madhura Audio. He went on to make Sneha Geetham, which won not just hearts, but awards too. They are colloborating on six movies, but they say the biopic stands tall as their priority. “We are contemplating on taking the best of the cast and crew, who can get into the skin of character. Filtration process of selecting the cast is going to be supervised with utmost care,” they beam.
The duo says the film will end with the sunrise of June 2, 2014. “Scripting would be done by April. June 2, 2017, it will go on floors and Feb 17, 2018 (his birthday), the film will reach his followers and also his non-followers, who are curiously waiting for the release,” they sign off.