On November 28, 2009, a little-known film made by a crew from Hyderabad and the US premiered at the Indian International Film Festival, Goa. Directed by Umakanth Thumrugoti and produced by Digiquest, 7 Days in Slow Motion was largely in English with a smattering of Hindi and English, narrating the story of three children — Hamid, Onka and Ravi. The Telugu version of the film, 7 Rojullo, will be releasing in Hyderabad this Friday after a long wait.
7 Rojullo is targeted both at children and parents. An American critic, Mr. Turek, (actor Joe Polhiemus) visits Hyderabad to attend a film festival and loses his camera, which three school-going boys chance upon. The trio decides to make a film. They have seven days to make a film, before their examinations begin. The primary character Ravi’s mother (Rajeshwari Sachdev) doesn’t want him to divert his attention from academics. The boys struggle to find a cast, make their film away from the watchful eyes of their parents, and also the film critic in search of his camera. In the process of making the film, Ravi accidentally shoots a few darker moments of people in his family and their friends, which gets revealed at a party.
Shot in Hyderabad by cinematographer Derth Adams, 7 Rojullo features Rajeshwari Sachdev and Vivek Mushran as Ravi’s parents. At the time of shooting the film in Hyderabad, Umakanth told us, “It’s a comedy with its share of songs and dances, but not in a conventional Bollywood manner. The film is not preachy and doesn’t talk down to children.”
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Says Ravi Subramanian, project CEO and head-business development, Digiquest Studio, “It’s a film every parent and child should watch.”
Digiquest plans to release the film in multiplexes in the city and 13 single screen theatres across the State. The film went through its share of distribution bottlenecks in the absence of big stars. “Films like Taare Zameen Par and Chillar Party got the required bandwidth due to Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. We were convinced about the film and wanted 7 Rojullo to have a good release even if it took a while,” explains Ravi Subramanian.
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Umakanth Thumrugoti moved to the US to study engineering and later worked in animation, visual effects and art direction departments of Walt Disney for 15 years. Umakanth was associated with films such as Bolt, Chicken Little, Treasure Planet and Fantasia 2000.
Acclaim
The English version was selected as one of the best children’s films since 2000, by the selection Jury of the 17th International Children’s Film Festival in Children’s World Category.
* The film has the Dove Seal of Approval and is approved by the Parents Television Council.
* In his review, critic Roger Ebert stated: “The Indian love of riotous displays of bright colors is everywhere on display,” and called the film “A bright and cheerful comedy.”