If there is one thing that sets Madhura Sreedhar Reddy apart from the film fraternity is accessibility; catching up with him at his office in Film Nagar, he talks about Backbench Student, his latest venture set to release sometime in March. The film will introduce newcomer Mahat Raghavendra along with Archana Kavi and Pia Bajpai.
Sreedhar’s fascination for the film industry began with Chiranjeevi’s Abhilasha and his resolve grew stronger when he watched Mani Ratnam’s Gitanjali and Ram Gopal Verma’s Shiva. “I knew I wanted to get into direction,” he says. A mechanical engineer, Sreedhar’s entry into the industry was a careful process.
“Ramgopal Verma used to have a video rental shop, he used it to make contacts. I set up Madhura music and through that venture I got acquainted to the film industry,” smiles Sreedhar. Sreedhar is a qualified mechanical engineer; he did his B.Tech from NIT in Warangal and went on to do a masters in IIT Madras. Sreedhar spent 13 years in the IT industry before he called it quits to get into the film industry.
“I was a topper so for a long time, I went with the flow did all the things I was supposed to do,” he says. With the music company, ‘Madhura’; Sreedhar says that it was like stepping into unknown territory, but with quick learning, he eventually bought copyrights to more than 400 films.
Sreedhar also started a film tabloid, Cinestar. It was only in 2009 that he started working on his debut, Snehageetam. “I had never been to a shooting before and shooting for this film was my first time on a set. I didn’t even know the keywords to shooting,” he laughs.
Sreedhar however believes that his career in IT has really helped, how? “I realised that direction is about managing your visual narrative. You have to take care of 24 crafts. At the end of the day its teamwork and how you extract work,” he smiles.
He admits that his first movie was amateurish but it still went on to win a few awards. With Its my love story, Sreedhar got confidence. Sreedhar believes in introducing new talent to the industry. Backbench Student follows the theme of Chetan Bhagat’s Revolution 20-20. “The story is about what happens if a student fails college. The film also has to do with Abdul Kalam’s belief that the best brains come from the back benches,” adds Sreedhar.
