Tag: Prashanth Varma

Director Prasanth Varma on ‘HanuMan’: In this cinematic universe, we also plan to have a female superhero film

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HanuMan, the first superhero Telugu film in the Prasanth Varma Cinematic Universe (PVCU), which is poised to release on January 12, has generated interest among moviegoers for its slick visual effects. Starring Teja Sajja as an underdog from the fictional town of Anjanadri, the film explores how he becomes the chosen one to benefit from the superpower of Lord Hanuman and turns a superhero. At his spacious office that functions like a mini studio in Manikonda, Hyderabad, director Prasanth Varma tells The Hindu that his film is not a spectacle like Avatar or Baahubali, but a well-crafted, low-budget superhero film with a narrative structure similar to that of a Disney or a Chandamama comic.

Teja Sajja in ‘HanuMan’, directed by Prasanth Varma

“Teja’s character has a sister (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), a girlfriend (Amritha Aiyer) and encounters a few problems. How he gets strength from Hanuman and what happens thereafter will drive the story forward,” says Prashant. It has taken three years since the origin of the idea to bring the film closer to its release. The director terms the process “a learning curve”.

Rajamouli’s guidance

At different stages of the film, Prasanth sought the advice of ace director S S Rajamouli and says that technical knowledge and hands-on working methods help, even if there is a dedicated team that looks into the VFX. “We worked with a limited budget and could not afford big studios. We worked with three emerging VFX studios, in which there were technical people who had worked on Rajamouli’s films. They would tell me how Rajamouli sir would sit with them, monitor the developments closely and, at times, take the mouse from their hand to do minute adjustments. I followed a similar method. For example, it can get tough to keep explaining how much depth you are looking at for a visual and it is easier to do the minor adjustments yourself.” 

An underdog superhero

Prasanth has worked earlier with Teja Sajja for Zombie Reddy and has known the actor for about a decade. “I wanted good actors for the film. Teja looks very different in HanuMan from Zombie Reddy. Varalaxmi was our first choice for the sister character and we were glad when she immediately agreed. It took some time for us to zero in on Amritha Aiyer and the antagonist, played by Vinay Rai. I believe that once we get good actors on board, other things fall into place. There are talented makeup artistes who can make actors look the part. Cases in point are a few Hollywood films and closer home, Keerthy Suresh in Mahanati.”

Actor Ravi Teja has lent his voice for the character of a monkey named Koti in the film.

Prasanth credits Rajamouli for pulling off a seemingly improbable feat for Eega (2012), which would be a challenge even today. Beyond technical aspects, he sought the director’s guidance for the overall presentation of the film. HanuMan began as a Telugu film and grew exponentially “just like the lord himself who grew from strength to strength” and plans were on to dub and release it in 11 languages. “Rajamouli sir told me not to schedule the release in all languages at the same time since it would be too much to handle. So we will release in Indian languages first and then foreign languages, including French.”

Writing team

The story of HanuMan came from Prasanth and was then developed by his team at Scriptsville, a writing team he co-founded with his sister Sneha. Talking about Telugu cinema’s recent phenomenon of engaging with a writers’ room, Prasanth says the term is an extension of what used to be story discussions in earlier years. The advantage lies in getting varied perspectives, with respect to social moorings of different characters and gender-wise insights. However, the final call, he says, rests with the director who should decide what would be best suitable for a film. Prasanth adds that it is imperative to clearly spell out the credit and compensation for writers, to avoid conflicts. 

Director Prasanth Varma co-founded a writers’ team named Scriptsville with his sister Sneha

Director Prasanth Varma co-founded a writers’ team named Scriptsville with his sister Sneha
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Fictional, parallel world

HanuMan will unravel in Anjanadri, a town set in a parallel universe. The country is named Akhand Bharat and Prasanth says it gave him ample creative liberty, “I wanted to imagine an India that has not been through Mughal and British invasions. Akhand Bharath is a contemporary parallel world. The people behave very much like we do. Baahubali has been released in that world too. But they do not have a city like Mumbai.”

This parallel world will be the stage for further superhero films that will roll out after HanuMan. In the pipeline are Athira and an untitled film that will have a female superhero. Prasanth is eager to rope in a female director for the latter film. “I will not be directing all the superhero films in this universe, since I want to dabble in other genres. We have spent considerable time in world building, detailing the history of the parallel world and we have a blueprint for all the films. We will begin work on these films soon after HanuMan’s release.”

‘HanuMan’ studio

Considerable portions of HanuMan were filmed in Vattinagulapally on the outskirts of Hyderabad where a temporary studio called Hanuman Studio was set up, with the help of production designer Nagendra. “We leased a land in Vattinagulapally and filmed plenty of ‘green screen’ shots (For the uninitiated, a large green backdrop is placed in the background of a shot for which visual effects will be added later during post production). Now that area is called Hanuman Studio and other film shoots are also happening there. For wide angle visuals, we travelled to Paderu and Maredumilli.” 

‘HanuMan’ unfolds in a fictional town named Anjanadri

‘HanuMan’ unfolds in a fictional town named Anjanadri

For one of the sequences, an outdoor scenario was replicated in a massive indoor set to ensure ideal lighting conditions. “A lot can change according to wind speed and light conditions. For one sequence we wanted things to be in our control and it was gracious of our producer, Niranjan Reddy, to agree to replicate the outdoor environs as an indoor set at the cost of ₹65 lakh.” 

HanuMan involved 120 shoot days and plenty of time in pre- and post-production. “We did storyboarding, looked at videos of how other superhero films were made, realised there were practical difficulties while filming, and returned to the drawing board for problem-solving. There was never an easy shoot day. We had challenges at every step. For example, we thought we could shoot ‘superspeed’ sequences easily but making the hero run bare feet was a challenge. We are not used to running with bare feet. So, some changes needed to be made in how we film these portions.”

The techniques used in the film, Prasanth explains, involve superspeed, unreal engine, basic matte painting, 3D, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and more. “AI helps speed up the process. What can take a couple of months can be done in a week. Post-release, we plan to put out videos of how a few sequences were done.” 

HanuMan has around 1,600 VFX shots, which constitutes approximately 30% of the film. “Rats, a cheetah, a tiger and a monkey were generated through VFX and there are a few extensions and scenes where the audience will not be able to differentiate the real from the tech-generated,” he adds.

Prasanth, who has until now watched HanuMan over a 100 times during post- production, was eager to see how the audience would connect with the narrative. He held two test screenings, inviting people from different backgrounds and age groups. “They told me that the emotions are good; nothing could have made me happier. It is good to have cutting edge technology to tell your story but the emotional core has to work. I used to get feedback that my earlier films were high on style but not on the emotional connect; so this time I made sure we cracked this aspect as well.”

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Pride Month | Queer cinema’s shackles in the mainstream

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Queer cinema continues to be ‘othered’ into a sub-genre, with a sedate growth in mainstream cinema. Funding continues to be the biggest obstacle but not the only one. “Money is tied to things that are controlled by cis-hets who look at filmmaking from a certain perspective,” says filmmaker Onir, pointing out that it is a problem that arises from the notions among those who decide what should be or should not be made.

Flumoxed over funding

Irrespective of being made by cis-gender heterosexual filmmakers (or if it has a cis-het gaze), what the recent string of Hindi films — like Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha…, Badhaai Do, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Cobalt Blue, Maja Ma, etc — proves is that if a producer and/or star back your film, the theme being queer has fewer obstacles going forward.

Are these releases a temporary pattern, or the start of something bigger? “A bit of both. Even if it is a trend, the more people venture into this, the more it will be seen as regular,” says Shubh Mangal Zyada… director Hitesh Kewalya, who adds that he got enough support from his producers to make the film.

But one milestone is not enough in a multicultural country like India, he says, and that any attempt, whether profitable or not, helps. “Earlier attempts like Aligarh, I Am, and Fire pushed the door for my film. So every step taken paves the way for the next.”

Hitesh Kewalya
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

What Hitesh says about the support of the producers cannot be undermined. When Prashanth Varma wanted to make Awe,not many were comfortable with its queer theme, he says. “They thought that it was a joke because, in many Telugu films previously, queer ideas were used as jokes,” he says adding that it matters having producers like actor Nani and Prashanti Tipirneni, who prioritise content over earnings.

Unfortunately, there aren’t too many such backers. Some filmmakers, like Roopa Rao (of Gantumootefame), opt for crowd-funding. Roopa made The Other Love Story in 2015 when the concept of a web series was nascent in India. Roopa wanted to go directly to the audience; so she chose YouTube as a platform. “I started to gather funds from friends and family, and as word spread, strangers began pitching in, including a producer from the UK,” she says. There are also exceptional cases, like Shruthi Sharanyam’s B 32 Muthal 44 Vare, which had a trans-man as one of the leads, where the Government helps with funds, something Roopa wishes happens more.

Stills from ‘The Other Love Story’ and ‘B 32 Muthal 44 Vare’

Stills from ‘The Other Love Story’ and ‘B 32 Muthal 44 Vare’
| Photo Credit:
IMDb & Muzik247

Many queer filmmakers continue to rely on independent sources. Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan, who has been making films for over 20 years, continues to source his money — he made his first film, Gulabi Aaina, with a budget of two-and-half lakhs and his films now cost over a crore — from independent sources; even his next film Kuch Sapney Apne (a sequel to Evening Shadows) is funded by friends, family, and private investors.

What’s unfortunate is that even if you finally make an indie queer film, Sridhar says, reaching the theatres is difficult. “It’s not easy to recover the amount you invest in marketing. Moreover, multiplexes are dominated by bigger distributors who cater only to star-driven films. Theatres are now trying just to break even, they are not in the mood to support indie films.” Sridhar hopes to see dedicated screens for indie films like in the US.

Sridhar Rangayan

Sridhar Rangayan
| Photo Credit:
Punit Reddy/Special Arrangement

Even Tamil filmmaker Sudha Kongara, who has made blockbusters with stars, says she does not know how many more mainstream commercial films she has to make, in order to facilitate a project on the lines of her own Thangam (the story of a trans-person from Netflix’sPaava Kadhaigalanthology) to hit theatres. “It’s still a chip on my shoulder that you have to be commercially viable, to do something you actually want later,” she says. “Even the OTT players ask me for commercially-viable content like what I put out in theatres.” She adds that the streamers are also star-driven now.

Nevertheless, Sridhar rests his hope on streaming platforms. “My first queer film, 2003’s Gulabi Aaina, was refused a censor certificate. We had to go through community-based organisations to screen it at film festivals. Only in 2015, when Netflix entered India, did the film get a release on OTT,” he informs.

However, Sridhar and many others say that the space on OTTs is shrinking as well. “Whenever I pitch something, they say, ‘We’re only taking baby steps,’ but their platform already has content that is far more provocative, which people are watching,” says Onir.

Onir

Onir

Time for more stars to shine?

So, while it tries to circumvent the star-driven system, should queer cinema also create its own stars? Onir says that it depends on society’s acceptance. “We are living in a country where actors don’t want to come out because of the state of acceptance.”

Open-and-out queer actors, filmmakers, and producers are the need for the hour. Adds Onir, “We need more people from the community to talk about their lived-in experiences. That’s why it was important for me to cast a queer actor in Pine Cone.” Onir’s latest is headlined by Vidur Sethi, the first openly gay Bollywood actor.

What does that have to do with queer cinema finding success in the mainstream? A lot.

Queer filmmakers in the mainstream

Poster of ‘Pine Cone’

Poster of ‘Pine Cone’
| Photo Credit:
@IamOnir/Twitter

Firstly, a boost in the mainstream would be counterproductive if most queer content is from cis-het filmmakers who tell queer stories from their perspective. For instance, Sridhar points out how most ‘Bollywood queer films’ are family dramas with just a few queer elements thrown in. “Other elements are narratives structured around these themes, not vice-versa.” Or as queer Kannada author Vasudhendra says, it seems as if most cis-het filmmakers “imagine a cis-man-cis-woman relationship and just swap the gender of one of them,” which fences the real experiences of queer.

It’s akin to cis-men attempting to make the new-age female action star come across as a gender swap with the hyper-masculine male hero, or as Sudha puts it, “semi-pseudo male characters,” and claim that to be progressive characterisation. The presence of queers will ensure the mainstream space is devoid of queerphobic ideas, which are still prevalent in cinema (as recent as this year’s Telugu release Ramabanam)

Vasudhendra

Vasudhendra
| Photo Credit:
Ramakrishna Sidrapal/Special Arrangement

But Vasudhendra does not believe that queers should only make queer films. “If a story is about a cis-woman who has married a gay man, it’d be better if she tells the story from her point of view.” But only when queers start telling their stories will others learn their perspective and try to do better, he adds. “It’s like how the earlier Dalit stories, that were written by non-Dalits, were mostly sympathy showers with no nuances of the life of Dalits. That changed. So did stories of women. So should be the case with queer stories.”

Sudha understands this. The filmmaker met trans people and took six months to prepare for her short in Paava Kadhaigal. “But I will never know if I am doing justice to it. I am someone who will have qualms with that.” 

Some producers see queer cinema as mere tokenism. “Many a time, they are like, ‘Hey, we have done one queer film, and we’re done.’ Are our lives so plain and homogeneous that you make one story and it’s done? They don’t tell a straight director, ‘We’ve already done 10 straight stories,’ right?” questions Onir.

Sudha Kongara

Sudha Kongara
| Photo Credit:
Pichumani K/The Hindu

Tokenism in queer cinema

There is an idea that’s floating around on how queerness can reach the mainstream; similar to having cis-gender men and women play supporting characters, can’t we have queer characters as well in movies led by cis-genders? Would that not help in normalising queerness in a cis-heteronormative space?

Filmmakers caution that such writing could amount to tokenism if not given its due respect and dignity. Onir wonders if this means that the queer character’s queerness is to be watered down. “Have you ever heard someone say that this person is not wearing his straightness on his sleeve? Why does my life have to be subtle? So, a queer character should be treated with as much dignity as you treat other characters,” he says.

It is also important that queer characters do not seek validation from cis-het society. “Everything about us is not about them; we are leading our lives as well.” And he also points out that such attempts be not put as ‘having queers in films that do not speak about queer issues’. “I hate the word ‘issue’. What ‘queer issue’ do films like Call Me By Your Name or the French film Close talk about? Not all heterosexual stories are about ‘issues’. Why is my life an ‘issue’?”

A still from ‘Close’

A still from ‘Close’
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video

Acceptance in society

All this talk ultimately rests on the audience of a film and how society accepts queers. On that front, many seem pragmatically optimistic. “Ten years ago, if I went to a public institution and asked them if I can speak about queerness, they’d reject the idea without a second thought. But now, many colleges are requesting me to come and speak about it. Society is gradually opening up,” says Vasudhendra.

Cinema and pop culture play a vital role in this, and it is up to the collective society to ensure that there are more avenues for queer stories, more space for queer discourse and more queers telling their stories.

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