Ala Modalaindi, Jabardasth and Kal
The films were a breath of fresh air in an industry which otherwise was filled with macho heroes who punched five villains at once and female leads who are just eye candy in the script. With the success of these films rose director and writer Nandini Reddy, who has now become a name to reckon with and has successfully managed to carve her own niche in the industry.
Nandini, who is now eyeing the release of her upcoming movie Oh! Baby, will be seen donning the hat of a director after a long gap. The movie, touted to be a fantasy fiction, has Samantha Akkineni and veteran actor Lakshmi playing the lead roles. Though the movie is a remake of the Korean drama Miss Granny, Nandini says the movie has universal appeal and would just work right for any audience.
In a candid chat with TNM, Nandini talks on the Indian adaptation of Oh! Baby, working on remakes, Tollywood’s fight against sexual harassment and much more.
You are known to pen the films that you direct. In that sense, Oh! Baby comes as a surprise. How did the Korean remake happen?
This time, it wasn’t my decision to adapt the Korean movie. The film came to me. The makers of Miss Granny themselves approached Samantha and me for the remake. That’s how I watched the film and I liked the film a lot. When I watched the story, there was an instant emotional connect. I felt it was a story that needs to be told. And also with Samantha on board, I felt no one else could do more justice to the role.
After Kalyana Vaibhogame in 2016, we are seeing you as a director after a long gap. Was there any particular reason behind this three-year break?
I wouldn’t call the gap ‘a break’ because there isn’t a particular reason to mention. It’s just that once you plan a movie, there are a lot of factors that need to be put together and at the same time work right. Actors’ timelines wouldn’t match and sometimes I would feel like there’s more work that needs to be the done on the script. But having said that, if you really want one project to happen after the other, you need to line up your work which doesn’t happen in my case. I tend to write most of my scripts myself and I cannot bring myself to write scripts at such a jet speed.
You said that Oh! Baby is a movie with a universal appeal. What exactly appealed to you as a director when you first watched the movie?
Oh! Baby is a movie that has worked well in seven countries already. It has a Disney palette... which means Disney films, if you have noticed, work well in different countries in different languages. Because its spirit is so universal. Human beings, be it from any country, have a set of basic human emotions. Oh! Babyis a story that will cut across all classes. You can’t categorise it as an urban or a rural film or one for a sophisticated audience. It’s a perfect mix of emotion and humour as well as mystery and magic. It’s a magical yet real story. It’s a movie that just makes you wish, ‘Wow! If only I had those powers!’
Oh! Baby will have actor Lakshmi returning to the big screen after a long gap. How was it directing such a veteran actor who is still revered across industries?
For me, it’s one wish done from my bucket list. Working with Lakshmi amma and Rajendra Prasad gaaru, I was like a kid in a candy store. I had a constant smile on my face because you don’t need to direct these veteran actors. You just have to put them in the situation and then watch them act. The craft that these actors have, every nuance they bring in and how they make every line written 100 times better - it was magical. I think working with Lakshmi amma was one of the best experiences the movie gave me.
Having talked about Oh! Baby’s universal appeal, how did you make sure the film suited the Indian sensibility as well?
Human and family relationships have been my forte. But for people who have not seen the original film, I had to make the film more native. When someone gives you a great story that has already worked, to translate the story is a huge responsibility. I didn’t want people to look back and say ‘Man, she ruined it!’ Having said that, we have worked with a lot of respect for the original version. I also took inputs from the Korean makers because at any given point of time, they can never go wrong with the true essence of the story. I was really nervous about the end product until the Korean team saw the movie (that too sans subtitles) and gave their heads up for the film.
Tollywood is seeing a large number of remakes hitting the screens this year. And only a few have managed to perform well at the box-office. As a director, what do you think makes a film a hit in one language and a flop for a different audience?
Remakes are tricky. Remakes go horribly wrong when you think of outsmarting the story. Every story has its own strengths and weaknesses. You have to rework on the strengths of the movie without overhauling the entire structure. It’s like if somebody has already built the ground floor to a house, you should keep the structure intact and then build the second floor. You are foolish if you knock down the base and try rebuilding the structure. Directors need to put aside their ego and not consider remakes a space to prove your talent. For example, Ala Modalaindi was remade into other languages. But I wasn’t happy watching them because the remakes didn’t get the sensibility of the original movie right. It’s not the scenes or the songs, it’s about capturing the essence of the film and not just translating them.
Having written the script for a couple of web series in Telugu, do you think directors have a better scope of expressing ideas online compared to the freedom they enjoy while making movies?
There are a lot of movies that do not fit in the two and a half hour format. For example, the Jayalalithaa movie. There is a film coming out on the politician and also a web series. I think web series will be able to do better justice to her tumultuous life because her life is not something that could be told in just two hours. Also, web series can rely purely on content. It doesn’t need the power of a star cast. In that sense, web series allow you to tell a totally different set of stories. Our behaviour in picking movies for theatres and web is different. The kind of stories that we watch in groups in theatres is very different to the content we watch online. But having said that, web series is an emerging space and everyone is still on the process of testing the waters.
All your works till date have young people in the cast, talk of heartbreaks, family and relationships. Are you trying to make the romcom genre your area of expertise?
No, I just want to be everywhere. I want to do all kind of movies. I want to do a crime thriller. I want to do a biopic. But I am also a writer and there are only certain genres I can write. But if I get readymade scripts that are worth the efforts, I can even do three films a year!
You are a member of the panel that has been constituted by the Telangana government to look into the sexual harassment allegations in the industry. How far has the work progressed and do you think enough is being done?
We have just put a seed and now we are watering it. Let the plant grow. It’s a great initiative by the government because no other industry in the country has taken an initiative of this kind. The members are optimistic and we need to frame rules and laws that involve multiple bodies across the industry. We also need to find the most effective mechanism that will set things into motion. For example, how do we convince women that even if they are not ready to name themselves, their cases would be heard? There are a billion of such issues that need to be addressed. We are not looking for overnight solutions but a solid mechanism that can work well for the industry in the coming years.