Sounds like politician-actor Ramya has had fun shooting for popular Telugu filmmaker Kodi Ramakrishna’s Kannada film Nagarahavu. The 1970s film by the same name starred Vishnuvardhan, and the film is seen as his landmark work.
This new film pays tribute to him, where Vishnuvardhan has been reprised through visual effects and graphics, as a 140-foot-long snake.
Ramya says she has two looks in the film, which is a story of reincarnation. “In the period look, I play a girl who takes care of the temple of the Nagarahavu. Cut to my reincarnated role, and I’m part of a band in which Diganth (the male lead) is also there!” says Ramya, speaking to MetroPlus .
Ramya says she took on this film because, “I’ve never attempted anything like this before. It sounded like fun. I like Kodi Ramakrishna’s films – they are a bit of fantasy and a bit of entertainment – what people go to the theatres to watch. You don’t really look for logic in these films,” stresses Ramya. Ramakrishna is famous for films like the fantasy-horror Arundhati on one hand and devotionals on the other.
While she says she has not watched the earlier Naagarahaavu, “Vishnuvardhan is the real draw in this film. The snake (Vishnuvardhan) does things through me and I’m not even aware of it. But it’s not like the old films – Nagin or Nagina – if that’s the idea that’s coming through now,” she states categorically.
Does this mean she is making a comeback to films after taking a break to be in politics? “No!” she says and adds that she’s only keeping up commitments for a film she’d signed up for earlier.
Ramya shot one instalment of the film in 2011 and then completed it in 2013. “It then took the filmmakers three years to do the graphics for the film,” she says.
Moreover, the director was unwell. The film was shot partly in Abhiman studios and partly in Mysuru for the period look with the palace.
“It was cumbersome shooting for the film, because any scene that involved the snake had to be shot twice – one for the computer graphics track. We would shoot in front of a green screen and I had to imagine that the snake was there and react accordingly. So there was a lot of imagination at play. It’s turned out gorgeous,” she states. The visual effects has been put together by Makuta Visual Effects, the same company that did the extraordinary work on Baahubali, Eega/ Makkhi, Magadheera, and Ghajini (Hindi).
“This film was quite a wacko experience for me – I even do a stick fighting in it, for which I trained with the stunt master. Imagine…I’m also holding a trishul in my hand and throwing it at someone!” she laughs. She revealed the first look poster of the film over the weekend and the teaser released yesterday. The film is set to be released in July. The 3-D poster of the movie has been nominated for the Lenstar Lenticular Print Award 2016.
