When you love someone unconditionally, you can never give up. Debutant film maker Sandeep Reddy Vanga says that it’s immature to stalk one’s ex; what he is about to show in Arjun Reddy is something more real, about how lovers react when they meet their former partner. He had written this story after passing out of film school from Sydney.
The idea of the story must have germinated after a break up either of people around him or his own. The auteur says, “There is some part of the story that parallels your life. The hero (played by Vijay Devarakonda) is a bachelor surgeon who has no hope that he’ll get back to his love interest. But he is still not out of it . Does he get back or not forms the crux of the story.”
The film moves from flash back episodes to the current situation. The depiction of the life of doctors and interns in medical college could throw you off balance but the director insists that’s how it is in reality. Having been in a medical college for a couple of years, Sandeep has seen the field in and out.
Sandeep says there’s a dark side to love too and he is eager to see the reaction of the audience to the new facet. “There are kissing scenes, there is ample adult stuff and I am not worried about the censors, the story is real. The lead pair are from the medical college and it’s the first time we are seeing a love story of doctors breaking up on screen. There are some relationships that can’t be spoken about to friends, it is between the lovers only; now that will be in the open,” he avers.
The filmmaker from Warangal hated the smell of hospitals, felt suffocated in the field and dropped out of college and then joined a film school. About the the title of the film, Arjun Reddy , he remarks, “Love stories are generally plot-driven, here it is driven by the character Arjun Reddy. It is a powerful name. During college years, you get to hear seniors talk about a legendary character and that name has a recall value. These days our Telugu film titles are lengthy and are from lyrics. I didn’t want that. Arjun Reddy was thought to be a faction film. I am juxtaposing that connotation with a love story.”
The success of Pelli Choopulu will ensure a big opening for Arjun Reddy as people would want to check out what Vijay is doing, think Sandeep. He adds, “Vijay is a great performer. You come to know when you are narrating the story, the questions they ask and the reactions we get, we did a work shop for eight days with Vijay and Shalini, a theatre artiste from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh . The film has been shot in Hyderabad, Italy, Deharadun, Mangalore. Music is by Radan and Thota Raju is the cinematographer.”
