The Movie of my Life | Sandeep Reddy Vanga | TEDxNITW

[Music] good evening all thank you for inviting me here itself honor to express hell down to tell you like what all has been my journey to make this film now they said like I need to say something inspiring and you need to be prepared so I said like I can't be prepared for an inspiration so I thought like I will just say in a flow what all has happened to start with the idea of making a film itself is a very naive and re a very raw idea I mean nobody has a nobody I mean I feel like nobody thinks that I want to be a filmmaker I think it comes from the idea of you know let's do it this way or let's do it that way you know I could I could I could probably write or imagine or visualize a better seen than this that that thought process starts from an early thought of you want to win do we break into films so this this thought goes on for a very long time and there is always a parallel thought process running in your head who wanted to be a filmmaker and you know that that that becomes magnanimous one day and you you feel that you know you should make a film so that's how I thought like I should no more be into physiotherapy and I should enter oops so I went to Sydney to do my post graduation and filmmaking and after that I was there for a couple of years then I came back to Hyderabad while while while I was in film school what I noticed is everywhere it was there are students from all different parts of the world was the exchange of culture is the exchange of tribe exchange of cinema and there is much more creatively happening surrounded by the students from all different parts of the country parts of the world so when I came back to her mother for the course like I didn't find much happening here in Hyderabad I mean I've noticed there was a little thing in Bombay but in Hyderabad I think there is there's nothing much in Heather was happening so so it will be like once you are out of the film school you think like you go to Hyderabad you meet a big star should narrate the story and things will fall in place but that doesn't happen that way because they entirely what you imagined and what it is in the real world is the same thing what you write and what you exude onto the screen so it's almost the same parallel thing so when came after coming to the Hyderabad seeing the reality it was very tough you know to even approach a producer or to even approaches to her forget about approaching stars and producers it's even tough for for a film school graduate to go to a film set and work as an ad you know there were there were a few film makers were completely avoiding students who came from film school God knows the I don't know the reason but so it took a while and finally I worked for one film has an ad because I wanted to know what exactly undergoes in making in the process of making the film I mean we learnt a lot of stuff in film school but in in the practical world in in Telugu film industry the things are a little different just to understand like how it's happening so it took one year of process for me to understand and after that I wrote a story I got the office I got a producer that went for one year I mean this film name is Sugar Factory we reached the title spoke to the actors in the last moment the producer backed out so it was a point every a depressing point where you know because I wanted to meet another producer to narrate the story so I came to know that the producer heard that this guy was having an office for one year and things didn't move that means that there is no there's nothing much to talk about the story so people started ruling me or that way thinking like you know nothing happened in the one-year process having a producer and nothing happened so so these things will put you this things will put you down and what one point when you're watching Hollywood films European films and you even know looking at the scenes you know that you could write something better than that sometimes or something equal to that or something and still you can't do much about it because it's simple I'll tell you you go tell a story to a person if he has money if he believes your story the same moment you are the director and he is the producer it's as simple as that if if nobody believes you take seven years or eight years god knows what time so two years went like that after the post sugar factory effect and after that I had an LT issue and it went like nine months and I started writing this already I took every year sweet time to write the story because of a very lazy guy and I took me two years for me to complete the story and after that I met him I met Sarah and I was narrating him and he was supposed to act and there were few producers were interested but the actual problem started here because when you told when you tell a story to a producer when it's completely out of his belief system he doesn't understand it and him not understanding that he's completely out of my belief system you ready mark rinse it so it was like that it was the clash of beliefs and somebody in you know somebody's getting angry how can you story be like that how can a hero be like that and you know like how can because somewhere we are used to a kind of cinema where heroes should all do all good things he can play basketball and the next time you can handle a keyboardist or it's like that does nothing wrong it is this in order to laugh because we are used to that kind of cinema I mean a superhero genre not a hero's honor so so people are used to that kind of cinema so I mean I don't think so people believe I mean people in the sense people investors financers producers believe that the film is an art form I don't think so the believe it because they believe in a kind of cinema where they're they're making money they're losing money and they're making money so they don't want to think any other alternative it's a human tendency so there is nothing wrong in it and we can't blame them for that because it's your artistic piece you can't go and beg say why don't you understand my story why can't you put money on my film you can't do that because you love your art you love your baby so much that you can't ask somebody to give something to my baby it's like that but people take it like a ego you know like they think like this fellow came from nowhere and he's wrote one story and he doesn't want to share another story and doesn't want to change things so things doesn't fall in place so this this this process went on for a while few producers liked the story they said like you need to tone it down here and there but I said like it can't be like that because if it is like that then it will be new it will be the same again there will be very few specific things in the film you can't change it if you change I mean I don't know how how the output would be but I didn't want to change so this process rent for a little while and after that it was almost a dark phase not knowing what's happening in life it's been like six and half years I came to Hyderabad from Sydney a thing is happening and most of them lost hope I mean I got married at the time I mean I just got married to endure fears back and there was a time when my wife's cousins relatives my in-laws used to come the weekdays I used to just little laser on in the sofa sit in the hall watch European films English will die dunno what they thought because usually at this age group you don't find men or boys sitting at home on the weekdays doing nothing so this process went for six months I mean so finally my brother and my father said let's produce this so that's how this journey went I mean like then we found an office because after coming from the Sydney I was located in a place for a brutha Valley wherever I saw in that place the blocks were so interesting it was like you can frame it anywhere we just span the camera you find interesting frame it was structurally built that way so I was amazed looking at the structure then I thought like we should shoot something here so I was there in that place where one on a fierce why I know each and every corner of that place so what I thought when I want an office I thought like let's go and search number seven but don't get there then I'll shift to some gradually or rather for something like that it's finally I got there then you open the office and things were falling any place slowly we started casting people and I was very specific in terms of casting and I was very specific in terms of locations because just because that's the reason I think new people are liking it you people are saying that it's very real it's very tangible because that is the reason I feel I mean that is the hard work went on because I did the location Reiki for almost four months three to four months each and every location was scouted well including the wall colors photographed so many locations were print we took printer of the photographs and we're seeing the contrast combination of the costumes you know that kind of work was involved through war from the beginning so we opened the obviously a casting is done things are going smooth and one day we thought like you know we have to start the shoot and one of my friend visited my office and he says like you can't make a film in his office like this vastu is wrong you are eating where you have to sleep and you're sleeping where you have to eat I said like this is office nobody's more asleep here save me but still this this structure has some parameters you need to follow it or else you never your film is never going to release I was thinking like I mean not only one so many people who have a little knowledge about was too and were little into this stuff they said like this bad entry bad was so there's a lot of darkness in their own then and I was thinking what to do and the first day of the shoot came I was still in that there was somebody ever thought was lingering in my mind like should I really want to change the office but by then I have we prepared some structure in the office where are Jun's room was prepared you know the kitchen the grill you know that blue tiles and everything what he said and what sketched out and attached and placed it on the walls so first day of the shoot it was morning six o'clock I was walking inside the office I thought like I'll be the first person on the set I went into the office or I opened the door and I see there was a cat with a red patch on the mouth the white cat we bought some pigeons in the office set up for the neighbors pigeons there you might have noticed in the film they were actually six pairs I think for pets the cat came and ate six pigeons one shot so I'll be like the face was completely bled and I opened the door I saw the cat it's it's my first shot first day of the film you know you're more of this than everything you want to shoot and you see this and somewhere I have this scary feeling for cats and I thought like this might be this might be a bad home and you know you never know because this entire process of six and half years and before that could Sydney and staying in the Harvard studying in the road all this will add up you know you as a personality you are not just one one day right within the entire structure follows you the same thing was falling around my head thinking like what's going on and I have and then I run into the balcony and I saw that the pigeons were dead so the entire mood was gone that day I was not able to concentrate the first day of the shoot the second day of the shoot there was a huge rayon third of the shoot some guy forgot some you know the these days you know it right we are shooting with this memory card there's no must talk the cameraman has straight forgot memory cards it's only one day showed that death scene 90 minutes we are not doing anything in a set so things like that every day something will come and in between there's another shoot they took VJ away and they tampered the beer and we were waiting doing nothing for 70 days to grow the beard so every problems over there I mean I was thinking I was again thinking what that fellow said might be true maybe this film might not release so these things were this these starts were coming and what I felt is like a strong feeling of you know accomplishing something what you thought what you were trimmed I think that was a driving force when we threw out this is all stupid process which I went through while making the film and we shot in manual or we were supposed to shoot for 5 days in Bangalore but we only got sorry 14 days in Bangalore fighters in college but you only got 2 days per vision in the college so gardeners were how I managed and how we shot five days of schedules crisped into two days the same thing with Missouri because it was minus 7 and we went to Italy and all the locations I did a recce even mostly they are done everything but Italy I couldn't do a recce because it was out of the budget you know I can't afford just me or do you feel going there and doing a recce and coming back so it was straight we went to Italy and we were just shooting randomly it's a pre climax song and I have only one unit of the track I don't know the lensing I don't know what I just went with a gut feeling and I guess work in few areas especially in the songs so all this happened we released the teaser and our teaser got huge response after that it took a very long time for me to release the trailer and once the trailer is done once the business is done the business was done we thought with what we thought the distributor's asking me like what is the long runtime they never asked me and I never told them the business was done and it was we were yeah we were supposed to release the film and I was doing those movie where where I was involved in the sound design work in Chennai and I get calls from the distributors saying that your film length is too big they say it's three hours 10 minutes hand out the Bangalore guy doesn't want to buy your filming he said like he's he doesn't want to buy and the seated guys doesn't want to buy they were ready to sell it for 40 lakhs I said lecture like if you don't--if doesn't want if he is not willing to buy then you give it to me I'm going to distribute it so he felt no no I'll try to find another buyer when I told him well don't don't don't try to find another buyer buyer if you trust the film just release it if the distributor's didn't see the film yet and today he went on and released on his own the distributor that guy refused the film for 40 lakhs the collection in Bangalore is 1.1 pro-rata lakhs so the gut feeling like there are so many things like that happened even in even in areas like I don't know when I don't know I don't know talking business or money but that's a few things like went on with a gut feeling so three days before of the release these distributors want to see the film and I was thinking okay I'll show them the film if they say it's it's it's about really if they say you have to cut down the length anyways I am NOT going to do that so I thought like let's put them as show they saw the film and they came out with a very smooth big fire smiling faces they said like it's going to be a blockbuster so so that's how this entire journey happened so now what I see is like when I see it the kind of response the kind of overwhelming response I get from the crowd and from the film makers from the distributors from the producers one thing what I strikingly think back and be happy about it is throughout this process a live about the process before opening the office from the day I started this script there are so many hurdles coming Tilden the office opening the office and making the film and now I feel when I look back I feel like I didn't give up on anything I was like I was like very I had a mentor and very name and thinking like let's see what happens I mean to tell you I forgot to tell you and when before before before proper like I was supposed to get 1.5 crores from outside days 1.5 crores was made missed my toe and 1 CR would be the publicity I'm just saying so right after opening the office does all you guys were supposed to put money on the project I said like dude it's not happening so I only have 1.5 clothes I don't know what to do I didn't tell Vijay I never told anybody and uh we're supposed to shoot in the next month and luckily there was an ancestral ancestral property like a 36 acres for mango gardens which is coming from heaters that was sold out my father and father put it to I mean they sold it out for one point six crores and they kept the entire money to the project and you know when your property is sold and we're getting money from there you know when you're when you're doing with that kind of money there is always a jittery feeling in your back in your spine you never know what happens if something goes wrong like you're gone I don't know I don't know sometimes if I think back like what made me to do this we might really don't know but now it it would work so right right from the right from the childhood till the last summer my I used to get mangoes from a farm from a grandfather's farm from mantels form when this was my father's farm this is the first summer I didn't get mangoes so I told myself like I am NOT and trust me I don't know the rate of the mango till date I don't know how much they're sold in the market because I used to get it free from the grandparents place in my father I mean from a farm so I told to myself like let's not eat mango kill him bill then you make your own money and buy a mango farm let's not eat man that's what I was telling to myself I was thinking like am I to fill me I'm I am I am I doing this you know like a film hero promise to yourself well I was doing the film but now I think like I can buy it back if I want so I'm that way I'm very happy and whenever you tell a story to a producer the producer wants to change something and you doesn't want to change it the producer says like son Dave you know what you director serve like fathers man the script is like a baby to you so you don't want to change so you are just so much attached to it and you can't change it because you love it so much so what I want to say is to put this in one statement my entire thing in one statement when I started the film my wife was pregnant when I was in Bangalore she delivered a baby boy I namely merjan ready so that's what cinema is too [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 613,800

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Entertainment, Art

Id: sccHlNsyv-Y

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 18 2017