Interview with Sathya Prabhas Pinisetty, director of Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka
Only Kollywood’s tete-a-tete with Sathya Prabhas Pinisetty, the director of Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka.
A close friend in the industry called me few weeks back and asked if I’ve heard about the Tamil film “Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka” and would like to interview its director. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to pronounce the film’s title when I first heard it (it took me roughly about 15 times to get it right and even now I can’t say it quickly). That’s because I can only speak Tamil.
Interview Prelude
Having realized I haven’t heard about the film or its director, my friend said, “It’s directed by Sathya, brother of actor Aadhi (Eeram/Aravaan fame). Their father is a popular Telugu director”. She was referring to Ravi Raja Pinisetty (father), known for popular Telugu films such as Chanti, Pedarayudu and Yamudiki Mogudu. My dad had introduced me to his films many years ago and both of us like “Pedarayudu” the most. She asked me again if I would like to talk to him. I replied with a firm “yes”. I got his number and had planned to contact him the next day.
Next morning, Sathya replied promptly within seconds to my message. “I’ve heard a lot about you from her (he was referring to the friend). Can we do the interview tomorrow,” he asked. I didn’t have a problem with it and before talking to him the next day, I had a quick chat with actress Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli (Sutta Kadhai fame), who plays a small role in the film. Lakshmi was not allowed to talk about her role but she explained that the title “Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka” is part of a popular Kural in Tamil. She had also explained its meaning but I don’t actually remember it now. But for those who know the Kural, I think, the title is self explanatory.
The one-liner of Yagavaraniyum Naa Kaaka
When I finally spoke to Sathya Prabhas Pinisetty, he informed me that he can’t talk much about the story and asked if I was fine with it. I didn’t have a problem because I usually never talk or ask about a film’s story because it’s for the audiences to experience in cinemas. But I requested him to talk about the film in a line if he doesn’t mind. “It’s (the film) about an incident that happened to my friends. It kind of changed the way they looked at life after that. It left a deep impression in my mind and that time I was not sure if I was going to get into films,” said Sathya.
Real-life inspiration
The incident happened in 2000 and 13 years later, Sathya decided to make into a film “with commercial elements and the soul of the incident”.”I wanted to make the film in such a way that the people involved in the incident and audiences could relate to it. If it can change someone’s life, I thought it’s a good story to be made and told. It’s an urban story about four friends and what happens in their lives because of that one incident,” he said. True stories aren’t easy to recreate for celluloid, and Sathya is quick to back me. “Try to be as honest as possible to the incident. Having said that, you can’t exactly replicate it because you need to take the creative freedom and add some fiction to it. You need to choose what you want to narrate before the incident and what after it”.
“A film is usually about putting together few events audiences can relate to and lose themselves as they watch. They shouldn’t think they’re watching a film, they should feel it. This script I worked on gave me all the ingredients and I just had to present it in an interesting manner,” he said. Few days before I spoke to Sathya, I had interviewed Harish Uthaman, who also plays an important role in the film. Harish and I were discussing about his career after the success of Pandiya Naadu. Apparently, he was signed on for “Yagavarayinum Naa Kaakka” (June 2013) even before he worked with Vishal.
When I cross-checked with Sathya, he corrected me, “It was actually Feb 2013”. Why the delay, I asked? “The nature of the script is such that I had to generally change over 100 locations. Four characters in four different parts of the country and I wanted to keep everything authentic and because of which we didn’t compromise creatively,” he said. “I gave in to the script requirements and most of the time went into finding the locations and getting the nuances right,” he added.
Filming across the country
The number of locations refers to the number of times Sathya had to shift from one place to another within a city. “They’re not the exotic locations. For instance, I shot in places such as Pudupettai, Pondicherry, Bombay and two fishing harbours. I could’ve easily cheated and compromised on the actual ambience required for the shoot. Instead I took my own time, convinced everybody and actually took the pain to shoot in real locations,” Sathya said.
A lot of time was spent on acquiring permission to shoot in places where it’s considered almost impossible. “We wanted to shoot inside a train in CST Mumbai, which is now called VT. I don’t think any south film has been shot there. To get the permission was a big hassle. We went through a long process, many sources and finally got it. These are the things and I being so specific about certain things caused the delay,” he said. Making inroads in the film industry was not a challenge for Sathya, but convincing his father definitely was. “Being in the industry, dad knows the pros and cons,” he said, and adding, “He’s seen the biggest of hits and the failures”.
Sathya’s tryst with cinema
Sathya’s folks always thought he would safely end up in a lucrative corporate job. “I was a very good student and topped in my school and college. I even did my MBA in London. I had a very attractive corporate career inviting me and had the kind of job offers many people would not say no to”. But a visit to a film set ignited the spark in Sathya.
“My dad was shooting in Switzerland few years back and I had visited him. It was there that I realized that something wasn’t right and all the job offers I had got didn’t make me jump in excitement. When I started analyzing myself, something told me maybe films,” he said. Till that point, Sathya didn’t even want to be remotely associated with films. And when he finally broke the news to his folks, “they got the shock of their life because they know me as a person. They doubted if I could survive in the industry”.
Sathya gave himself two years to see if films were his true calling or just something he got carried away by because he comes from a filmy background. “The more time I gave myself, my family and I knew this is where I wanted to be. There were a lot of people who discourage me. I wanted to prove them all wrong. So I refused all the job offers, worked in the industry for about four years and finally decided to take up direction,” he said.
Sathya’s Oscar moment
Sathya didn’t want to piggyback on his family’s popularity in the industry. So he decided to go and do his film studies. “I went to American Film Institute – AFI, it’s like the Harvard of film schools and I did my program there,” he said. He had the rare privilege to be part of the Oscars in 2008. “Every year Oscars handpick eight students from different film schools in the US and invite them to the award ceremony. During Oscar week, they have a student’s luncheon. In 2008, I was one among the chosen eight,” he said. “I’ve never been to any of these Indian film awards. But I was invited to the Oscars and I shared the auditorium with Hollywood stars. They kind of honoured all of us and it felt so special at that moment, especially in a country where people don’t even who you are,” he added.
The Oscar episode gave Sathya immense confidence. He returned to India and decided to work on his film. He started writing the script and the film that we’ll soon see in cinemas was his “22nddraft of the script”. “I had 21 different drafts before. A lot of thought went into the writing the script because there’s a heart and soul to this incident and that’s what motivated me to take it up. I didn’t want to let that go,” he said.
Mithun da, the performer
The film features Sathya’s brother Aadhi and Nikki Galrani in the lead, while Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty will be seen in an
important role. Mithun was approached for the role because the script demanded someone from Mumbai. In fact, a portion of the film is also shot there. “The character that Mithun da plays is from Mumbai. But the character looks like a Tamilian. I wanted someone Tamil audiences have not seen before and with superstar status because I’m projecting the character as larger than life,” he said.
Mithun gave him 15 minutes to explain his character, but seemed reluctant with the offer.
“I somehow managed to get the appointment of Mithun da. He asked me to come meet him but told me that I have only 15 minutes to brief him about the character. When I finally met him, he asked me why I came all the way from Chennai to try and convince him when he’s least interested,” he said.
“I started narrating the incident first and he slowly got involved and I could see that he was getting curious. By the time I finished my narration, it was half hour but he was so engrossed in the story, he wanted to know more. We discussed for two hours and he finally said he will do the film,” he added.
Mithun’s confirmation was Sathya’s big “morale booster”. Aadhi was part of the project right from the scripting phase. “My brother knew the script and he showed interest. I also felt the character demanded someone like Aadhi who could play both shades. I wanted someone who could convince audience with both positive and negative character,” he said.
“Aadhi has played a negative character in ‘Mirugam’. He’s also played a positive character in ‘Eeram’. So when an actor is playing these parts I wanted audiences to believe when he’s being good and bad,” he said.
The film was predominantly shot in Tamil, but Sathya plans to release it as a bilingual (Telugu as well).
