HYDERABAD: Kotha Poradu, a critically acclaimed 10-episode web miniseries in Telugu released on OTT platfo r m ‘Aha’ in January this year. Written, directed, acted and lyrics for the series are by a debutante director, Anvesh Michael, 29, from Bollikunta, Warangal. Anvesh quit his government job to “make regional dark authentic films.” The story of Kotha Poradu revolves around Raju, a carefree village guy who is new to Hyderabad city. Even as his struggles seem neverending, fate has a different plan in store for him. The series has won appreciation for being a raw Telangana regional series in a distinct Telangana dialect. We catch up with Anvesh Micheal as he takes us through his cinematic journey till now, talks about Kotha Poradu and his future directorial plans.
Got an acting break in 2017
I started my acting career in November 2017. I was one of the four leads in a 10-episode web series called, Nirudyoga Natulu by independent film makers Sai and Rohit. The series got a huge response overseas and went viral as it had brought a new style of film making. Then came an opportunity to work in a regional Telangana film, but that film did not work out. I made up my mind not just to act, but a ls o di r e c t simultaneously.
Kotha Poradu, my first baby
When I was working In Chennai I used to travel to many cities where I used to watch children on the road sides selling clothes, and electronic goods. I got an idea to make a film on them. I used to watch many regional films in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Bengali languages, and decided to make a Telangana regional film.
Making a fresh start
I gave up my job and came to Hyderabad to make an acting career in the Telugu movie industry. I was surprised when I visited Monda market, Koti and Begum Bazaar and saw children selling clothes and electronic goods here as well. Taking that as the basis for my idea, I approached a local production house called MicTv (Mic movies). We shot for nine days, and made a trailer cut. They were impressed, but asked me to wait for some time as they were working on another film at that time. However, I did not want to wait any longer. I started pitching the story to other production houses. I gave more than 200 narrations and felt completely lost. No one was ready to produce it, as I was a new director and was pitching to act in it. As a director, and writer, only I knew that I could pull off this character, so I was keen to make it as an independent film maker. During this time, I got a call from a friend, about an OTT platform looking for content. I decided to give it one last shot. I gave them a narration, and they said yes, and were ready to produce this film, but only for the web. I gave the narration to producer Allu Aravind, for OTT platform ‘Aha’. He approved it in the first narration, itself ! And that’s how it started.
Future projects
I am currently working on two projects. One is a Telangana - Maharashtra tribal area film which will be in Hindi. The shooting is likely to start next year. The other project is a web series in Telugu.
— Tamanna S Mehdi
tamanna@newindianexpress.
com @tamannamehdi