‘Sairat’ cinematographer Sudhakar gets talking

Sudhakar Reddy Yekkanti is exulting in the success of Marathi movie ‘Sairat’ that is earning accolades worldwide

HYDERABAD:Madhumasam, Pourudu and Dalam were Telugu films in which Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti worked as a cinematographer; he currently keeps shuttling between Telugu, Hindi and Marathi projects. Armed with a bachelor’s degree from JNTU and a PG from FTII, the Guntur-born, Mumbai-based technician became a familiar face with Deool , a Marathi movie. But it was Ek Akash that he directed that actually stabilised his career. He is now in the news for his realistic work in Sairat the Marathi movie Sairat that is storming the box office, even in Hyderabad.

While Malayalam and Bengali movies have a sizeable audience in the city, Marathi too has picked pace after

Time Pass, Time Pass2 and

Lai Bhaari .

Sairat which won national honours is running houseful in Hyderabad and the DoP of the film, a Telugu technician, is quite pleased with its success. Sudhakar observes that Mumbai and Pune have a huge market for Marathi films. Audience everywhere, be it in Hyderabad or Mumbai, just wants a good story and entertainment.

Talking of why Sairat became a hit, he says, “Right from the beginning we had elements that were very real. It happens in real space. Though the first half is romantic, post interval it gets real. Through the narrative that was possible, lighting, framing, camera movements, the way it gets edited all adds up. A lot of it was shot in Hyderabad — Charminar, Lakdikapul, Koti, Imlibun Bus Station, around Koti — as the story moves in here. It was not constructive shot taking; the camera is very intimate with the characters and you feel close to them. The light and the place are very real and so is the acting. We handled certain things candidly as the actors were new and no one knows them. We had people looking into the camera on the streets. Red Epic, Dragon Red and F65 cameras were used to bring the story alive.”

Sairat was also trending on social media and now the overseas crowd is exulting at the business. Within the country, Sairat, made on a modest budget of Rs. 4 crore, collected close to Rs. 60 crore in three weeks and is still going strong. “It has become euphoria; people are coming over to the podium and dancing. My friends sent me videos from Canada and Germany of people having a good time in the theatre,” says Sudhakar.

Revealing details of the films he says, “Director Nagraj had these stories with him for quite sometime. He had also found this heroine, Rinku, the daughter of one of his friends and had been watching her since she was in school and felt she was a perfect fit. After we shot this film, a similar incident took place (the plot of Sairat revolves around honour killing), where the boy was killed. We thought after the climax, when the titles begin to roll we would be using some content and statistics and collected newspaper cuttings as well but dropped it finally lest we get preachy and divert audience attention.”