Are you wondering if the writer-director inside Srinivas Avasarala has slipped into hibernation? Well, the actor says he is not getting enough time to spend on ideation and scriptwriting.
He has been appearing on the Telugu silver screen more often now.
Srinivas Avasarala is playing the character of Loknath in director Sai Kiran Daida’s upcoming Telugu horror film Pindam.
As the film is scheduled to hit the theatres on 15 December, actor-writer Avasarala met with the media in Hyderabad on Wednesday, 13 December.
He shared his insights on working with team Pindam. Excerpts from the interview:
“I sense that I’m taking on fewer characters these days. The films I committed to in the past are gradually surfacing one by one. We initiated Eagle sometime last year, and now, it is set for release on Sankranthi next year. I also have Kismat and Kanyasulakam, both of which were initiated a long time ago,” he said.
The director of Oohalu Gusagusalade (2014) prefers scriptwriting to acting in front of the camera. “Scriptwriting provides him with complete freedom. Acting is someone else’s dream.”
Srinivas Avasarala explained: “I believe that if you want to be a part of that dream, sometimes you have to work without fully understanding it. When you strike that resonance, you will enjoy acting. Whereas, direction is all about managing people. So I prefer writing all the time.”
Pindam features Sriram, Kushee Ravi, Srinivas Avasarala, Easwari Rao, and Ravi Varma in crucial roles.
Yeshwanth Daggumati is the producer. The story is by Saikiran Daida, Kavi Siddhartha, and Toby Osborne.
Ask Srinivas Avasarala why he agreed to act in Pindam and the actor-director quipped, “I watched director Sai Kiran’s work Smoke, an independent film that he made in America. The short film had an unexpected twist in the climax, which caught me off guard. This made me believe that Sai Kiran possesses the talent to captivate the viewers’ attention.”
In Pindam, Srinivas Avasarala’s Loknath researches supernatural beings. He meets Easwari Rao, an expert in the subject.
“The timeline is set in the 1920s. How the story and events turn out in the process is the crux of the film. The movie is set in three different timelines,” he elucidated.
The actor admits that he is not a big fan of the horror genre.
“I am not a huge fan of horror thrillers. However, after unexpectedly watching the film Prema Katha Chitram (2013), I was impressed by the audience’s response to it. I came to know that the attention span of the audience is higher for horror genres compared to other films,” he noted.
Srinivas Avasarala admits that he has not yet figured out what his genre is. “I feel cinema is no longer a medium to deliver a social message to the public. Audiences have changed the way they perceive the content. I want to experiment with myself when it comes to scriptwriting,” he observed.
The actor-writer-director is now working on a script under the horror-comedy genre. However, it is not as frightening as Pindam. It has an emotional storyline.
“My understanding of a spirit or a ghost is different. Rather pondering on the scare element, I would probably dabble with the emotional element in the story,” he said.
Always inclined to learn rather than offer advice, Srinivas Avarsarala believes everyone has one’s style of narrating a story.
“I prefer sitting quietly, listening, and observing. I have done the same thing on the sets of Ravi Teja’s upcoming film Eagle. It was a valuable learning experience to see how the dialogues in a big-budget film are written and executed.”
When asked why he would recommend audiences to watch Pindam, he replied, “If you have seen Sai Kiran Daida’s short film Smoke and were impressed with it, you will surely watch Pindam.”
Cinema is no more a medium to deliver a social message: Srinivas Avasarala
