While the streaming space has witnessed a huge surge in last couple of years, the Telugu film industry has remained relatively low-key in terms of creating big-scale projects. Which is why Trisha Krishna-starrer Brinda, the investigative thriller series that released earlier this month, came like a breath of fresh air for the audience. Despite treading familiar terrain, the show stood out for its treatment as well as exploration of socio-political themes like religious dogma, nature vs nurture, among others.
Cinema Express spoke to writer-director Surya Manoj Vangala, who made his debut with the show, about the making of the series, the thought and efforts that went into it. I come from an orthodox family, with a very rooted lifestyle. Yet, I had my own questions about god, how I perceived god, etc.
Like I remember, when I wanted to crack IIT, I used to pray. When things were sorted, I wouldn’t. This was around 2014, when you are having discussions about polarisation happening around you.
And these talks were not happening just in Delhi, but also became your bedroom conversations. You were seeing extremism of all sorts. Somewhere, from this cultural background and exposure to world cinema and books had me in a juxtaposition, trying to find where I was.
Brinda’s character evolved from there. It’s not the extremes, but the goodness within you that you have to concentrate on. The humanity within you will tell you what to do.
This is the solution I evolved to. I didn’t st.