A confident step

He may be just 24, but debutant director Sujeeth is high on confidence

Director Sujeet with Sharwanand and Seerat Kapoor on the sets

Sujeeth is probably the youngest man to make his debut as a director in the Telugu film industry. At 24, he appears confident and totally in control. Though he speaks briskly; there is an unmistakable clarity in thought and sincerity in his voice. His film Run Raja Run for the producers of Mirchi is releasing soon and he is busy wrapping up all the patch work. “I would have made my debut at 22 but I had to wait for two years for various reasons. I am from Anantapur and I completed B.com and was halfway through chartered accountancy when I decided I must follow my passion, listen to my heart. The moment my decision was announced, my mother bought me a camera, my dad was supportive too.”

The director completed DFT and made over 40 short films that even earned him international awards. Around that time, he approached the producers of Mirchi when he heard they were hunting for a story. To his luck they gave him the green signal and asked him to go ahead with it immediately.

One of the short films he made was

Run Raja Run; he used the same title and wrote a story for a feature film. The producer said they liked it but said they would use it as second project with him and would make it on a large scale; they wanted a small budget story first. Sujeeth retained the same title for the next story he narrated, it was okayed by them and in two weeks his dialogue version was ready. But what is the story about? Sujeeth doesn’t elaborate much though, “It is a love story set against a crime background, it talks about Raja, his identity and his involvement with the crime and how he gets out of it. He is constantly on the run in the story. I would call the movie a CAR (comedy, action and romance). Sharwanand plays a hyper active person. After he agreed to be a part of the film, I travelled with him for a few days and I realised he was a perfect person for the role. He appears serious but there is an extremely cool and fun loving man in him.”

Extra care has been taken for Sharwanand’s costumes, Bhaskar, the person who designed Prabhas’ clothes in

Mirchi worked on it. Music director is Ghibran who had composed for Amara Kavyam, Uttama Villain and Vishwaroopam II . Cinematography is the highlight, Madhi handled it and he worked earlier for Shaitan and Mirchi . The film looks very rich and Seerat’s presence and her dances were a bonus, avers Sujeeth. Ask him if his next film will be a big budget and a star-studded venture he quips, “I try to do new and different films. Since I have made short films earlier, people expect a variety. Let me bag a second film, that is more important right?”