Found a brother in Sudheer: 'Bhale Manchi...' director

Debutant director Sriram Adittya says he bonded like a brother with actor Sudheer Babu, who plays the lead in the forthcoming Telugu entertainer "Bhale Manchi Roju".

"I'd imagined Sudheer as a very strict and serious person. Therefore, I assumed it won't be easy to get along with him. Nevertheless, we hit it off quite well and bonded like brothers. It was so much fun working with him," Adittya told IANS.

On working with Sudheer, the 26-year-old director, who comes from an engineering background, said it was delightful.

"I usually take several takes before locking a shot. One of the scenes with Sudheer actually took us 14 takes, not because he wasn't getting it right but I wanted it to be perfect," said Adittya, adding that Sudheer was extremely patient throughout the course of the shoot.

He also said that the audiences will get to see Sudheer in a role sans heroism.

"This story doesn't require the hero to be all macho. The focus is on the character he plays. This is a story of 12 important characters and I've given all my actors equal screen space."

Unable to categorize the film in any particular genre, Adittya says the film's story unfolds in a day.

"It's a story that takes place within a span of 12 hours -- from morning to evening. It has shades of crime and comedy. It's a screenplay-based film that'll be very different from the regular crop of films," he said.

Featuring an ensemble cast of Wamiqa Gabbi, Dhanya Balakrishna, Saikumar, Posani Krishna Murali and Paruchuri Gopala Krishna, the film is produced by Vijay Kumar Reddy and Sashidhar Reddy.

Before wielding the megaphone, Adittya was working with companies such as Google and Facebook. He says that with basic ground knowledge about filmmaking, it isn't difficult to enter the industry.

"Today, the industry doors are open to everybody. If you know what it takes to make a film and join hands with the right people, you can become a director. You also have to learn to be extremely patient, positive and have the right attitude," he said.

The film's title means 'what a good day', and Adittya recalls how a bad day turned good on the sets.

"We had to shoot a song in the rain. We were ready to start shooting, but we were told that we couldn't get water tankers. It left us so disappointed, and then it poured cats and dogs out of the blue. With the help of cinematographer Shamdat, we managed to shoot in the rain. It came out so well," he said.

The movie will release in cinemas on December 25.