Stunt choreographers Ram and Lakshman await the release of 'Veera Simha Reddy' (January 12th release) and 'Waltair Veerayya' (January 13th release) the coming Sankranthi.
In this interview, the recipients of six state Nandi Awards for Best Fight Master talk about the films, working with Nandamuri Balakrishna and Megastar Chiranjeevi, and more.
In 'Veera Simha Reddy', there is a fight scene where the hero bashes up baddies just sitting on a chair. He is too big and physically powerful to need to stand up. That's what is conveyed through the fight. When Balakrishna is the hero, you can go overboard with fights. You can't do that with most other heroes. The interval fight was shot in Istanbul in Turkey. It's going to be a major highlight.
In 'Waltair Veerayya', the hero hails from Srikakulam. He is a commoner. In the interval fight, he is revealed as a stylish gun-wielding macho man. The change will thrill the audience. There is an emotional drama between Veerayya and Ravi Teja's character. Chiranjeevi delivered those emotions with a smile.
The directors (Gopichand Malineni and Bobby Kolli) of both movies worked on the body language of Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi. The demeanour of the heroes and the backdrops of the movies are completely different. That made it easy for us to do the films simultaneously.
Mythri Movie Makers are not like 'We will invest one paisa and earn ten paisa'. They spend five paisa. They ensure quality.
With age, both Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi are becoming more energetic. They are conscious of what is expected of them.
An action scene has to get its beginning and ending right. The audience's attention has to be garnered before the fight begins. Otherwise, the audience would be distracted by the fight. In the era of smartphones, the fight has to be really meaningful and necessary.
We always give two versions to the director. He picks the option he finds better. Without content and characterization, no fight would work. Entertainment, emotion, and newness are a must. Otherwise, action sequences would look dull. In 'Bharat Ane Nenu', the lead man is the Chief Minister. What should be made to make his fighting plausible and enjoyable? That made us work on the build-up to the fight. The fights in 'Sarkaru Vaari Paata' too fetched us applause.
In 'Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo', the climax fight comes with a montage song. It was so interesting to compose a fight working on such a novel idea. Unless you add some 'masala', the food will taste boring. The same applies to action in movies. Sometimes, if a fight is unrealistic, it ends up becoming the butt of ridicule. Cinema is all about imagining what doesn't already exist. In the process, we sometimes commit mistakes. Foreign action choreographers don't understand the emotional needs of Indian films. We feel they compose slick action otherwise.
On the partnership with each other: We constantly think and rethink. We try for newness every time. It bores us if we don't do creative thinking. We complement each other's ideas. We take lessons from Nature. We are attuned to its rhythms. Nature sends you signals, which we need to receive with openness. We meditate. We wake up at 2:30 am. We turned vegetarians. Why does a computer system hang up? It's because of the stress. The same applies to us humans. We need to always rejuvenate our minds.
On sibling bonding: All siblings grow up under the same roof without egos. But once they become adults, they become egoistic. This world is a stage and we are here to welcome the good and shoo away the bad. Negativity will distance us from fellow humans.
