Art or scrap? It's both!

Installation art is no joke, it's a cerebral piece that establishes an intimacy between imagination and physical space and art director Ramakrishna brings forth 50 beautiful pieces made from scrap for the forthcoming film Andala Rakshasi. This is his first Telugu film as an art director and luckily for him he's being spoken about in the same breath as the cast and the story. “In the film, the hero is an artist and gifts the heroine a bird made out of scrap. For this, we used plenty of pen nibs. There are many more items made from discarded typewriters and its parts, automobile material and more. We didn't buy anything new. We also made a portrait of a heroine out of 25 thousand empty beer bottles at the aluminium factory. I had two assistants from Mumbai helping me and we plan to hold an exhibition after the film's release. We wanted to send a piece each to every theatre screening the film to promote it. The producer of the film, Suresh Babu, Chandra Sekhar Yeleti and few others evinced keen interest in buying the art.”

Ramakrishna who is a graduate from the Film and Television Institute, Pune has worked with Sabu Cyril for around eight films. He has worked with Priyadarshan and Vishal Baradwaj too. On Priyadarshan he says, “Most directors come prepared to the sets but with Priyan it's different. He improvises on the spot and he can ask for anything. It's a challenging task for a technician to conceive an idea and get it approved and appreciated at that moment.”

Execution is not a big deal for Ramakrishna though. He takes the available matter and uses it to the maximum and is known for his framing and aesthetics. “Shankar works on a bigger scale. In one week we made 100 dummy villains — black robots,” he recalls. Finally, Ramakrishna avers that people will laud every technician after seeing the film and the credit goes to its director Hanu Raghavpudi for spotting talent and giving them an opportunity. . His next film as an art director is for Chandrasekhar Yeleti, the hero of which is Gopichand.