'I'd like to wrap my creativity in different ways'

Simple streak

Few filmmakers manage to carve a niche for themselves with their unique brand of filmmaking. Raam Reddy, a 26-year-old director from Bengaluru, is one of them. An alumni of Prague Film School, he is the maker of Kannada film ‘Thithi’, which revolves around the ‘thithi’ (funeral ritual 11 days after a death) of Century Gowda, a cranky 101-year-old man.

It portrays the humourous exploits of his elderly son, Gadappa; middle-aged grandson, Thamanna, and great grandson, Abhi, up until the day of the ‘thithi’. ‘Thithi’ premiered at the Mumbai International Festival and Raam is thrilled as he talks about the adventures as a filmmaker.

I have dabbled with all forms of art...  I started with poetry and photography and was also into music. When I was 16, I even had a photo exhibition. I studied economics in college but found it a little dry. Filmmaking gathered more of my interest and along with my friend Eregowda, who co-wrote ‘Thithi’ with me, I made a short film in Telugu called ‘Eka’, which means feather. I shot it using a DSLR.

‘Thithi’ was shot in a village in Mandya... My co-writer is from the same village. Though we grew up together, I hadn’t seen this place all these years. I visited it before going to Prague Film School and felt that it was the right place to shoot the film. Since he was an insider, I wanted to use the relationship he shared with the place to make the film. We had a creative exploratory period for five months when we brainstormed before we finally started shooting the film.

Casting was a challenge... Most of the actors aren’t professional. In fact, they are actual farmers.

I hope to create a particular world that cannot be replicated... That doesn’t mean that I am keen on doing only one kind of cinema. Though I am a great admirer of directors like Ang Lee and Abbas Kiarostami, who have a particular style that comes across in the very first frame of their films, I’d like to wrap my creativity in different ways. So far I have made a short film in Telugu, a Czech film and now ‘Thithi’. Though I don’t have a flair for languages, I think they play an important role in building the particular world that forms my vision.

Magic realism is a genre that catches my attention... It’s a literature genre that hasn’t been seen much in cinema. But I hope to make more films in it as it was something that attracted me when I was finding my voice as an artiste.  

The audience here is exposed to just one world... We have an interesting style but every film doesn’t need to have a song-and-dance sequence. If you watch world cinema, you will learn that there are a million ways to make a film. But that being said, I don’t worry too much about where I stand or how the others are doing. If you stick to honesty, quality will follow.

Indians love fast and engaging stories... Whether they are with or without songs or a star. As long as the story is not too slow, it will surely be commercially viable. After all, we
Indians love stories! 

(As told to Deepa Natarajan Lobo)