National Award winning director Mohan Krishna Indraganti, who mesmerised cine-goers, with films like Grahanam, Golconda High School, Gentlemen, Sammohanam and others, recently bagged success yet again with the much hyped multi starrer V. The film was released on Amazon Prime Videos on September 5th and is very special to the director as V is the film he has been waiting to show the audience since a very long time.
We at Telugu Filmnagar caught up with the director of V movie, Mohan Krishna Indraganti in an exclusive interview, where he talks about V, teaming up with Nani-Sudheer Babu and the music allegations. Read more about the exciting interview below.
What instigated you to do an action entertainer like V?
You see, there is nothing like something has instigated me. I have always been a huge fan of this genre for a long time. I have been a great admirer of war films in Hollywood and Hancock and I’m also a fan of Amitabh Bachchan’s and Sashi Kapoor’s films like Dewar, Trishul and Don. I have been more interested in the content more than the style in these movies. Like these systemic clashes between cops vs gangsters, police vs criminals. So, I thought why not try it with the psychopath genre. My friends know that V story was in my head since 2007 and before Grahanam, I wrote a thriller story with which I want to debut and I met a lot of people but didn’t work out. And when I made Grahanam, it won a national award. Then later, my favourite Director Chandrasekhar Yeleti called me and said Grahanam is not so-called an art movie, it’s a thriller and you should make more thriller movies, you will be good at it. I have been thinking about it for a long time and there is nothing particularly that provoked me but from my last movie Sammohanam, I completely wanted to change the dynamic to another genre. I didn’t want to go for comedy, romance anymore so I thought why not I will go for action thriller drama.
What was the reason you waited this long to do a film like V?
One of the main reasons is the budget, such movies require massive budgets and they also require solid acting stars who can take the film forward. I wanted a certain look and I didn’t have the budget earlier. The other reason I was trying is to develop a connection with the audience. I was against the idea of 100 percent art house cinema and I was also not comfortable with high commercial Telugu cinema. So, I was trying to find a ground for myself. I was experimenting with all genres like comedy, romance and connecting with the audience and it took me a decade and more for this. Then, I thought, I will do now what I want and see how it will go. At some level, Sudheer Babu and Nani believed in me but for various reasons, I was holding back for a long time.
How did you map emotions, drama and action in V?
I never structure the story on how the audience wants to see because that’s risky as I can never understand what the audience wants. I’m a writer, who focuses more on the character and one thing I wanted in this film is the violence to be gruesome, ruthless and authentic. I also wanted to show the anger and grief, which drives people with imbalance. I focused on every character keeping Sudheer and Nani in my mind.
View this post on Instagram
What are your thoughts on cinema evolving lately in Telugu?
It’s a welcome sign, a lot of new concepts are coming out and it’s beautiful. I have seen some amazing films like Mallesam, Dorasani, Raja Varu Rani Varu, Brochevarevarura, Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi, Pelli Choopulu. All these films are trying to change the landscape of the films and it is very welcoming. It’s nice to see the youngsters grow and question regular commercial films. But, comparing to Tamil and Malayalam industry, Telugu is way behind and has a long way to go.
What do you say about this allegation of BGM being copied?
This kind of certain genre have the same kind of music, there is a rotational approach by using certain kinds of instruments. Compared to Tamil people, we as a Telugu society do not have much music knowledge, we as a culture don’t have people who learn and study music anymore. So, the moment we hear similar sounds, we say copy and the same happened with V. Music directors are constantly accused of stealing music, which is not right. SS Thaman is quite talented, he doesn’t have to lift music, especially from such a popular Tamil film and in today’s world with social media and technology, it is so easy to find out if anyone does that. The music is definitely not a copy.
View this post on Instagram
ALSO READ: EXCLUSIVE! Nani: Want To Work With Rajkumar Hirani Some Day
What do you feel about people saying, “you only work with Nani, Sudheer and etc?
These are just shallow reactions, I don’t usually pay attention. We as filmmakers repeat actors because we bond well and it’s easy to work. I did only three films of Nani out of 25, I did only two films with Sudheer out of 12, 2 with Nivetha and Aditi Rao Hydari. Compared to other mainstream actors, I have introduced many new talents. My dream is not to work with big stars but to bring great talents to the cinema. Even after such a big film V, I don’t want to work with some big star, I rather want to do a small film with a comedy or romance genre.
Your films have a reference to the Telugu language at some point. Is it a conscious effort?
It’s not like conscious effort, it flows with my writing naturally. I know people who talk Telugu like that and it is nice. I’m not inventing such Telugu, I just observe such Telugu from my life and borrow it. My love for Telugu comes naturally. I can never say ‘Nenu Ninu love Chesthunna’, I hate such Telugu, I can only say ‘Nenu Ninnu Isthapaduthunanu.’ I want to keep it simple. We have so many nice Telugu words, we can use them.
We at Telugu Filmnagar congratulate Mohan Krishna Indraganti on the success of V and hope he continues to entertain the Telugu audiences with different genres in the upcoming years.
Watch Telugu Online Here
