HYDERABAD: On the third day of the shoot, the crew accosted Aditya and demanded tea. From the fourth day, they started boycotting breakfast, went out to eat and asked Aditya to clear the bill. One day, they protested about the cabbage curry and wanted Aditya to talk to the caterer about it. Soon, Aditya had to cancel the catering order, which cost him a lot, and write down a whole new menu of what the crew preferred to eat, while simultaneously deciding angles to shoot the scenes.
Aditya Tadepalli is the writer of the upcoming Telugu indie web series Vengamamba’s Kitchen, which is directed by Raj Addela, who works full-time as a forensic arson scientist. Udbhav Vanapalli, the director of photography, runs a wedding management company called The Dreamer’s Films.
The show’s story is about three small-time go-getters who want to make it big in the food industry. On the set, Aditya is anywhere from the director (when Raj is missing from action), executive producer, spot boy, accountant, travel coordinator, to sometimes, even the chai wala. “I’ve to get up early in the morning, make sure the caterer reaches the spot on time, the transportation picks up the actors and every two hours, run to get tea. Everyone drinks tea six times in a day. If they don’t have tea, they start losing it,” says Aditya.
Any sane filmmaker knows that handling both direction and production is like mixing oil and water, that’s why they approach a corporate production house. But Aditya is sick of them. “Once they (corporate production houses) okay your script, they sit on it for five months just to see how they can cut down the budget. For five months, you’re doing nothing, you’re paid nothing. In indie filmmaking, decisions are immediate, the money is very low, but the work is constant and there’s a lot more freedom,” says Aditya.
Aditya’s show is probably one of the first few indie projects to resume shooting during the Covid-19 pandemic. Being the all-in-one guy, he had to also visit the police station multiple times to obtain permission to shoot. “I have to ensure that everyone on the set, except the actors, is wearing a mask, each team approaches the camera to review the shot in batches and the make-up artist uses an air sanitiser before doing the touch-ups,” he says.
Run-ins with the police have become common for him. On a particular shoot in his building, for which he had already taken permission from the society’s secretary, Aditya ensured a network of security guards to alert him when a police van was passing in the lane.
Kalyan, Aditya’s cousin, is the location manager for the project, taking one burden off of the latter’s shoulder. Lately, Aditya has been limping around on the set with a crepe bandage around his right foot. A sprain due to sudden physical exertion, he says. It’s painful but Aditya took up the job because he
wanted to prove something to himself. “Like everyone else, I pursued computer engineering. Then I worked for three years in the IT industry. But I was not enjoying any of that. Then I left for the US to do my Masters in Computer Networking. Due to visa issues, I opted for another degree — Masters in Business Management,” Aditya says.
“I used to believe that in the world of cinema you need to have a lot of contacts and that 99% of it runs on nepotism. I thought TV serials meant Ekta Kapoor-type soap operas. I used to think that whatever I was daydreaming about stories and characters was just a hobby. But Netflix and Amazon Prime changed my mindset. I told myself that this is something that I can do,” he says.
After watching shows like The Wire and Sopranos, Aditya realised that this is what he wants to do in life. Aditya pursued a diploma in filmmaking from New York University.
Albeit being shot on a shoestring budget, this sort of project gives him creative liberty, which makes the trouble of producing and directing seem worth it. “You can’t get along with everyone on the job, so I learnt to adjust,” he says. “When I see a perfect shot, the burden of running around disappears.”
That is, of course, before somebody demands chai.