Varun Tej is buoyant about his forthcoming release Antariksham 9000 kmph. He says, “It is a long weekend and I hope adults and kids will be equally excited to watch this first-of-its-kind space movie.” Antariksham 9000 kmph , according to Varun, is ‘the story of an astronaut, who loves what he does, messes up things, and has to return for redemption, to fix things.’ Sci-fi in Telugu is a rarity, and everyone’s excited about Antariksham .
For an actor so young, Varun uses a lot of endearing but right words. He talks about ‘intention’ when he says how Antariksham had plenty of constraints, budget being the biggest; “but, the idea was not to set off a chain reaction of bad consequences for people involved.” He continues to pick roles which are not run-of-the-mill, a promise he made to himself at the beginning of his career.
Speaking about the vision of the movie, Varun says, “We wanted the movie to have a pan-India appeal, moving away from the region-centric narration that is usually seen. I totally bought into the idea that Sankalp (of Ghazi fame) brought. It is based on a true story, narrated in a fictitious way.”
The movie which has two timelines, also features Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays an astronaut and Lavanya Tripathi, who plays the protagonist’s love interest. “It was so good to have the two ladies on board,” Varun says. “Lavanya’s role is small but effective, and it was nice to see her play her bit, more for the sake of being part of a wonderful story, after a spate of commercial movies. Aditi is at that stage of her career where she wants to do good stories; it is a welcome trend,” he muses.
What also stands out is Varun’s clarity about the project, something he shares with Sankalp. About the director, he says, “It is no mean achievement to win a National Award with your debut movie. Yet, we had trouble getting people to back this project. People were ready to put in a lot more if I did commercial movies, but I wanted to avoid those. Thankfully, First Frame Entertainments – Rajeev Reddy, Krish, Sai Babu Jagarlamudi, Suhasini Panguluri – stepped in; they are known for making movies out of passion — Gamyam and Kanche being excellent examples. We tried to restrict the budget so that it doesn’t put pressure on anyone. I hope films like these do well, so that in future producers aren’t scared about backing the vision of young and talented directors with great ideas,” says Varun.
He cites the example of how the story needed plenty of zero-gravity shots and they had to create their own rigs and use ropes to enact those scenes – a cost-effective but difficult method. They were trained for four weeks before the scenes were shot over a 35-day period. Several scenes needed arduous choreography, and the Bulgarian Juji, with experience of working on Hollywood projects, was roped in as the action choreographer. Acting in a space-suit was a challenging task too, according to Varun. ‘We did 9 am to 9 pm, 12-hour shoots, and carrying that Extravehicular Activity (EVA) related appendage, which weighed 15 kilos, in the stifling heat of summer, was painful,” he adds. “The whole movie was wrapped in about 70-days, credit to the makers,” says Varun proudly, who at one point had to juggle between shooting for this and another film F2.
Varun shares screen space with Venkatesh in the rom-com F2 , in keeping with his proclivity to switch themes and genres and not get stereotyped. He is also doing a sports-based film. Varun speaks of how audiences have an attention span that needs to be engaged, and unnecessary songs and comedic scenes only lead to their losing that intensity. Winning their attention back is difficult, and that is why our movie, at two hours 15 minutes, is crisp and stays true to its storyline. The movie has an impressive cast which includes Srinivas Avasarala, Rahman, Satyadev and Raja.
“Let’s be honest, this movie is for a niche audience. It is clear in what it wants to portray and goes about it with a no-nonsense approach. There is no digression, no distractions, no needless meandering bits,” Varun says, pointing out that the movie has just one song (which, along with the BGM, is receiving rave reviews, kudos to Prashanth Vihari), and no comedy. It is a serious movie, that makes a promise, and keeps it,” he signs off.
