Filmmaker Sai Kiran Adivi is ready with his next, Operation Gold Fish (OGF), a romantic action thriller starring Aadi Sai Kumar. The film narrates the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, who were displaced in their own country. He asserts that its a contemporary story based on true incidents.
“I was moved by the stories of Kashmir issue, which goes back more than 70 years, Kandahar Hijacking and several other incidents and decided to make a film with a mix of fact and fiction, around three years ago. Rather than narrating it on a serious note, I have incorporated a love story, which is also inspired by a real incident and made a cross-genre film. It’s a screenplay based film which depicts the unexpected events happened in the lives of a gang of friends and an NSG commando, who is also a Kashmiri Pandit. The scenes and the incidents were shot reflecting the aspirations of Kashmiri Pandits and the film starts off presenting how Article 370 and Article 35A were being misused by some people. I think our government has scripted the climax passing the historic bill,” says Sai Kiran.
Sai, who is also producing this film credits his partners Padmanabha Reddy, Keshav, Katta Aashish Reddy, Damodar Yadav, Degala Satish and his wife Prathibha Adivi for keeping their faith in him to tell a fascinating story. “I had only Rs 3,500 when I started off OGF. But, I don’t want to stop and was determined to make a good film. Luckily, I have got the best team, who believed in my story and my abilities. I couldn’t have been able to complete the film on a budget of Rs 6.50 crore without their support,” says the director.
Sai acknowledges a profit-sharing arrangement with his friends who were associated with this project. “Rao Ramesh, Abburi Ravi, Anish Kuruvilla and several others are the stakeholders in our film and they will get a share of the profits. Above all, it feels glad to have these people around me and their support has helped me deliver a good film.”
The director says that the characters in the film are inspired by real people. “Amit Shah’s rise from a student leader in RSS to becoming a Union Home Minister has inspired me to design Rao Ramesh’s character. Similarly, the roles of Ghazi Baba and Farooq Iqbal Iraqi played by Abburi Ravi and Manoj Nandam were etched keeping a top-ranking commander of Jaish-e-Mohammed of the same name and Burhan Wani in mind,” he recalls.
Ask him why he chose Aadi Sai Kumar for the lead role, he explains, “Aadi’s eyes and expressions convey a lot of intensity. He looks masculine and needed a little makeover to get into the skin of the character. I was quite apprehensive as his character has no songs, no heroine and is serious throughout the film. To my happiness, he agreed to be a part of the film at our first meeting and gave his cent per cent.”
The film was shot in sensitive areas of Kashmir, Lambasangi, Araku, Kakinada and Hyderabad. Sai Kiran says acquiring permission for the shooting was difficult in Kashmir. “It was quite a challenging experience as there were a lot of restrictions imposed owing to the safety of the people. But, we took permission from the Indian Army and Government of India to shoot in places like Kargil and Ladakh among others. It has been a memorable experience as Kashmir is one of the beautiful places in the world and the locals were really good people.”
The director is inclined to make films with a purpose. “Films, for me, must be meaningful. I always want the audience to remember me as a sensible director. I can vow to quit direction if I make a worst movie. I want to tell stories that are blended with emotion, drama and entertainment. That’s my USP,” he avers.
Sai doesn’t rule out the possibility of a sequel for OGF. “A sequel is definitely on the cards. I am ready and prepared to work on it as it’s a film that is close to my heart,” says the filmmaker before signing off.
— Murali Krishna CH
muralikrishna.db@newindianexpress.com
@onlymurali