The web series Nanna Koochi comes from a team that laid the foundation for digital content in Telugu with Muddapappu Avakai . Directed by Pranith Bramandapally and featuring Nagababu and his daughter Niharika Konidela in lead roles, Nanna Koochi shows how possessiveness can be a roadblock to a father-daughter equation and the approach towards relationships changes at different phases in life.
“This is a story that’s very close to my heart. I always look up to my dadthe way he accommodated things for me, I can’t imagine my life without him. At a time where I was wondering what could I do for him, Nanna Koochi came in.” Pranith wasn’t supposed to direct this initially, it was only after he and Niharika came on board that things got bigger and better. The team shot the entire series in 12 days. Speaking of Niharika and Naga Babu’s off-screen equation translated onto screen, Pranith mentions, “On and off sets too, they were more like friends. One day where they were having lunch in between shoots, we didn’t inform them of a camera and used the visual for a montage shot for the series later. It was a joy to watch them perform.”
The gap between his first web series and Nanna Koochi wasn’t intentional, “I was approaching actors for one of my feature films and Niharika was busy with her Tamil debut.” He wanted to show how a girl in her 20s would react to a new woman entering her father’s life. The parallel love tracks in the series was to generate a possible conflict. “She tries hard to be mature about it but can’t handle the sudden shift in her father’s attention; that was the starting point of our story.” Niharika and Pranith share a good rapport. The former co-wrote the dialogues and played a crucial role in developing sequences portraying a girl’s perspective.
The nursery backdrop adds a lot to the fun quotient of the series and it isn’t merely placed for face value. “I thought it was a fresh backdrop for a story. Here we weaved a backstory that it’s also in memory of the lead protagonist’s wife.”
The series deals with a gamut of issues — of personal space, egos and taking a break after education. Some of it was biographical too. “I took a break after my degree where I had a lot of people giving advises. Here the advice is from someone the girl considers as a third person, which adds juice to the conflict.”
Another high points of the web series is Nagababu’s ease as an actor. His comfort in the digital format comes as a surprise. Pranith adds, “He is such a fantastic actor. He was ready to experiment with the format, was open to listening and trusted us after the success of Muddapappu Avakai . It was a good learning experience for me.”
Sivaji Raja plays Nagababu’s good friend and they happen to share a similar equation off-screen too. “I approached him at a time when he was yet to make a comeback to films, I was a little apprehensive on how he would react to a web-series idea.” Jabardasth Rakesh provides the element of humour to the story.
The success of his first attempt and Niharika’s presence in films came as an advantage to the final product. Kaala Bhairava’s background score and Karthik Rodriguez’s musicals ring in life to the frames by the cinematographer duo Vidyasagar-Akhilesh. “I am ready for my feature debut and looking for a good time to go on sets. We will continue to produce web series. We’re listening to scripts. I will write a few of them too, but I won’t be directing them for a while,” he signs off.
( Nanna Koochi episodes can be watched on Zee5 app)
