Art director Murali Kondeti who created the beautiful set of Gundello Godaari, had worked as an assistant art director for 30 films and an art director for four films so far and says his latest film is by far the best. He reels off details that went into creating the area submerged in the flood: “We took a dry lake meant to cultivate shrimps, made the surface uneven and filled with red sand, stones and other material. We put up a cattle shed, bridge, planted palm and coconut trees. With a remote in hand, we let the water in from the reservoirs. The water is recycled from Godavari. Around 200 carpenters worked with additional labour and we brought in life guards, tyres and fishermen to help in case of any emergency.” The director, cameraman and art director are friends and made the project happen.
Devoted man
Sai Kiran is beaming and the reason for his happiness is his wife Vaishnavi, a software engineer. “Life has been blissful ever since she came into my life two years back,” he says. The actor-singer is acting in two devotional films Vasavi Vaibhavam and Shirdi Sai. In Shirdi Sai he appears as various Gods to the devotees and in Vasavi Vaibhavam he plays a king with negative character. What about his pet passion, snakes?” Snake preservation is my passion, whenever I get a rescue call, I will drop everything and run.”
Soumya of Mugguru and Ramadandu is set to silence critics who slammed her for being overweight — she has clearly worked hard to wear a bikini for Poga. “I have about 15 to 20 minutes in the two-hour film — a spoof on Ramgopal Verma and Urmila who are out to shoot a film in a farmhouse— I play Sharmila. A group of friends visit us while we shoot and the farmhouse belongs to one of these friends.” There are other actors like Navdeep, Madhushalini, Veda and Randhir. Meanwhile Soumya is coming up with a film school in Vizag that will be affiliated to Ramanaidu Film School and will initially have a three-month certificate course.
Banking on home turf
Kriti Karbandha is looking forward to join the shoot of her debut film in Tamil. Her career was not quite happening in Telugu but she got a good reception to her Kannada films at her home ground in Bangalore. The pretty actor has signed three Kannada movies and is waiting for the release of Poga, Kalyanram’s movie. On her Tamil movie, she remarks, “It is being produced by the makers of Mankatha and Mahat will be my co-star. I got other good offers in Tamil as well but it will be too early to talk about them. Currently my mum and I are busy with our boutique and we are looking to expand it and make it more commercial by the end of this year.”
Long wait
Havish is in a quandary, he is letting go all the offers that are coming his way –because of his hair! He apparently had to tonsure his head and the look with sprouting hair will not suit his other roles in the film. He was offered Ravi Babu’s Avunu too. Now Havish has no choice but to wait and wind up the last schedule of Genious directed by Omkar. The budget that began at four crores is rumoured to have gone up to ten crore, despite which the film has shaped up well, says the actor. He is peeved with the comic roles that are coming in post Nuvvila but prefers to wait and do a quality film.