Venu Udugula on ‘Virata Parvam’: My intention was to not romanticise the Naxal motion

“I like human dramas, stories that are realistic in presenting different facets of life,” says director Venu Udugula, when he discusses his method to writing and filmmaking. He believes there isn’t a dearth of tales to relate if one keenly observes the happenings round them. His first Telugu movie, Needi Naadi Oke Katha, was a commentary on the training system. He adopted it up with the Sai Pallavi and Rana Daggubati starrer Virata Parvam, the Telugu romance drama impressed by true occasions in Telangana of the Nineteen Nineties.

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The director was conscious that he was steering away from mainstream norms when he started engaged on the movie. “I wanted to narrate this story with honesty and integrity. I could have easily incorporated a situation where Sai Pallavi dances to a Telangana folk number, if the box office math is all that I had in mind. This film has no room for that.”

Sarala’s story

The story was impressed by occasions involving a younger lady named Sarala, who was suspected to be a covert agent and reportedly shot by the Naxals. Venu researched for 4 years, attempting to piece collectively her story. “The girl went in search of the dalam (the Naxal group), inspired by their ideology. She travelled all the way from Khammam to Nizamabad. The Naxals suspected her to be a covert agent sent by the police and killed her. What we have shown in the film – the treatment meted out to Vennela (Sai Pallavi) by the group – is far milder than what Sarala went through.”

Venu says he was moved by Sarala’s journey and was decided to relate her story. Sticking to the info would have made the movie a docu-drama. He launched a love story for cinematic attraction.

The information clippings proven on the finish of the movie level to Shankaranna, a Naxal chief, having shot Sarala. In the movie, the Ravanna character enacted by Rana is a fictional one. Venu causes that because the love story is fictional, it might not have been applicable to make use of Shankaranna as Rana’s on-screen title: “From what I learnt from my research, Shankaranna did not seem like an inspirational character for this story. He was prone to make hasty decisions and was not a likeable character.”

Loss of relevance

A love story in opposition to the backdrop of the Naxal motion, runs the chance of romanticising it. However, Venu emphasises that was not his intention. “In the case of Sarala, I thought if they did not understand why a young woman would go to great lengths to find and join them, it is an indication that they have failed. What changes can a group bring to society at large if they cannot understand one woman’s plight? If one were to narrate a realistic story of Telangana in the 1980s or 1990s, the socio-political milieu has to be reflected. I am aware that the current generation may not connect with the Naxal movement. The undercurrent of my story is that the Naxals made several such mistakes and did not change with time, hence they lost their relevance.”

(Clockwise from prime) Nandita Das, Sai Pallavi, Easwari Rao, Zareena Wahab and Priyamani

Venu had looked for Sarala’s household whereas making the movie, however there have been no leads. It was solely after the movie was made that he received to know that the household is in Warangal. Venu, Sai Pallavi and Rana visited the household and requested them to observe the movie, to allay any fears they could have in regards to the depiction of Sarala’s character within the movie. The household, nevertheless, asserted that they’d watch the movie after launch: “Thankfully, they are very happy with the film,” says Venu.

Rooted cinema

Venu grew up in Hanamkonda, Warangal, and moved to Hyderabad 18 years in the past. A self-taught filmmaker, he remembers watching worldwide movies screened by the Hyderabad Film Club and that bolstered his curiosity in making true-to-reality cinema. “I believe that our audience is mature and will accept different stories. During the pandemic, people have been watching Malayalam and Tamil cinema more than before and have been exposed to different styles of filmmaking. Unless we attempt something new, how will we know if the audience will accept it or not?”

For Virata Parvam, his transient to music composer Suresh Bobbili, artwork director Nagendra, cinematographers Divakar Mani and Dani Sanchez-Lopez was to maneuver away from the norm. “The camera movements happen with a purpose and quite organically. We did not resort to the regular method of an extreme closeup during an emotional scene and a rousing background score that would manipulate the audience to shed tears. Suresh Bobbili brought in Telangana folk instrument players and around 90% of the music was recorded using live instruments. Some of the lyricists are also Telugu writers who are exploring lyric writing for the first time. I wanted the film to reflect the poetic temperament of Vennela’s story.”