Having spent the past month finishing HIT: The Second Case and extensively promoting it across the Telugu states, there’s a sense of relief in Sailesh Kolanu’s voice as we sit down for a Zoom chat on the film’s second Monday. “The promotions are all done and I’m pretty free now,” Sailesh tells me before the interview begins. His relief is not to be confused with closure though. The filmmaker is just getting started and he envisions creating a seven-part cop universe. His armoury is filled with stories (bloody ones, going by the first two films) and a blueprint connecting all these individual cases in the ‘HIT-verse’.
As he warms up for the next adventure, in this CE interview, we discuss the many creative choices that rendered the second film a thrilling ride and the direction he wants the franchise to take with HIT 3.
Excerpts:
Why did you choose to open HIT 2 with a sequence that gives away the motive of the central crime?
As an avid reader of crime thrillers, I have personally been fascinated by the concept of lending a prologue, making the reader forget it and then strike them with the realisation that they had already read about it right at the beginning. There’s a kick to derive from it. I also believe it’s fine to give away a certain extent of the story at the beginning instead of introducing a new story from the scratch toward the end. I wanted to familiarise the audience with the theme of the film.
What is usually the starting point for the crime mysteries you set out to create and solve?
It differs for each story. For The First Case, it was an incident I had read about; one involving a police officer and a young girl he found standard on a freeway in the US. For The Second Case, I really wanted to understand the grotesque fetishism of a psychotic mind that sought pleasure in parading the body parts of multiple humans together. Entha crazy ga unte alanti oka pani pani chestharu (how crazy one has to be to pull off something so vicious) was the thought that lead to the crime and that narrative.
I also wanted the protagonist Krishna Dev (KD) to be the polar opposite of the first film’s protagonist, Vikram Rudra Raju. I liked the idea of placing a cool and nonchalant police officer in the middle of such a morbid crime.
In screenplay writing, it is sacrosanct that you avoid the first—often the most obvious choice a character would make—thing that comes to your mind. How do you process it?
Yes, the most obvious thing should not happen. But I also believe that even if we are going for the most generic choice, it should unfold in the most interesting, emotionally riveting way. For instance, we know that KD will destroy the killer at the end of the film; that’s the most natural thing that can happen. But what makes it enjoyable is how he makes it happen. He weaponises his words at a moment of sheer physical helplessness and agony. His mouth is his biggest tool. He simply talks to people and takes them down; that’s how I establish his character right in the first scene. So in the end, he manages to take the killer down simply with his words.
Speaking of the killer, the casting must have been a tough nut to crack because when you cast a known face in what looks like an insignificant role, the audience has a natural proclivity to question this decision.
I was aware of the probability that a section of viewers will keep suspecting this character to be the villain but I was okay to live with that thought because I believe HIT 2 is not just a whodunit. There’s a lot more to the narrative than ‘who?’, the ‘why?’ and ‘how?’ are equally intriguing. And if you notice, the fundamental difference between the two films is that the first part is heavy on the suspect play, with the narrative introducing you to numerous suspects whereas in HIT 2, I don’t really show you any suspects and the focus is majorly on peeling the layers of his psyche. Deep down, I wanted the audience to forget the identity of the killer and instead focus on the proceedings.
Yes, the audience might feel that they have out-witted me but the 15-minute showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist after the reveal is what I believe was the heart of the ending and for that to work effectively, I wanted a face-off between two great actors. The role of the killer needed a great performer. Had I gone with an unknown face, you really wouldn’t have derived pleasure in the climactic showdown.
What was the biggest creative block you faced with respect to HIT 2?
The backstory of the killer caused a huge writing block because of the sensitivity of the issue. I really had to present it objectively. If you see, the killer has been also subjected to some unfortunate things. At the same time, he made wrong decisions. I wanted to keep my vantage point morally neutral and let the audience decide which way they want to swing towards. It was a huge responsibility as it is easy to influence the audience’s moral skewness using dialogues and shot placements. It took a lot of time while writing to crack.
You are being asked by your followers to make an ‘elevation-heavy’ HIT 3, which Nani is set to headline. People like me, who have enjoyed these films for the great thrillers, are a bit concerned about the direction the third film might take. How do you address it?
If I make the third part into a full-blown masala cop story with commercial tappings, I would become the person who destroyed the universe myself (smiles). That’s not where I am heading.
I believe one can achieve these heroic elevations in the most sensible ways. A situation can exalt the hero, it doesn’t really need a slow-mo tracking shot and pulsating background music. I believe moments in the story will uplift the protagonist.
The biggest challenge facing me right now is to lend moments for the fans to whistle in the theatre but they should very much be placed in the confines of this universe. It is a tricky job and trust me, it doesn’t happen with punch dialogues and music, it has to emerge from the story. I will create those highly rewarding moments but they will be in my style and will have the signature of the ‘HIT-verse’ intact.
HIT 3 will still be a taut thriller but it will have 10-15 moments that will give you a high. That’s what I am trying to achieve now. I will never write a mass masala commercial cop movie.