Last year in June, Malayalam movie Premam stormed the box office not just in Kerala but in other places as. There was a repeat audience for the romantic story that had a fresh take on a youth on his three stages of life. The music too became a rage and actors who played a two-minute role in it also became household names. Director Chandoo Mondeti is currently wrapping up the Telugu remake of Premam that has Naga Chaitanya in the lead with Anupama Parameswaran, Sruthi Hassan and Madonna Sebastian playing his love interests.
Chandoo is aware that there will be many comparisons. “Those who have seen Premam think all that I need to do is shoot same scenes and use similar music and that would make my job easier I am under a lot of pressure. It might sound like a cliché but this is not entirely a remake. I felt there would be no changes to be made, but the little changes became inevitable. Out of the three we were sure we needed one star heroine to pull the crowds whereas we retained Mary (Anupama) and Celine (Madonna).”
While discussing Premam’s music, Chandoo says, “Out of the eight songs in Premam , we used three songs with same music. We are sure Telugu audience will be happy we remade it instead of dubbing. The quality of this Telugu version is extraordinary. Men will relate to the story in a big way, especially those who are crossing the stage of marriage i.e in their mid 30s.”
The first episode was shot in mid town, second at an engineering college and the third has an entirely urban set up. The team has shot the film in so many locations that it will be difficult to pinpoint the exact place...Ongole, Vijayawada, Visakhapatanam and Goa, among other places.
Ask him why he used the same title for the remake and he says, “I made the film keeping all the criticism that would come in, on my mind. I considered Majnu and even had many dialogues using the word Majnu. The suggestion for change came in from producer and distributors for commercial reasons. They wanted us to retain the original title as they thought people would flock the theatres to see what it is all about. The business of the film was done on the muhurat day itself. Our job now is to sustain the positive buzz,” he signs off.
