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 start writing the story already knowing the solution. It was a long journey, from 2016 to 2020.
While I always had the idea, Padmavathi Malladi, my co-writer, helped me give it structure. I think, initially, I wrote a 500-page script some 50 times, yet it wasn’t upto a level that I wanted. Also, when I was writing lines, I was talking about so many ideas, they were becoming too philosophical, and it was becoming too difficult to contain it all.
Padma came and gave it a simple structure. Meanwhile, my dialogue writer, Jay Krishna, had the powerful ability to capture the essence of my long monologue lines into 1-2 lines. Also, my script consultant, Shashank Vennelekanti suggested me many books which helped me figure out the approach to Brinda’s character.
He is a very well-read man, and his ideas of the world helped me create my supporting statements in the script. The audience should be told not just about Brinda’s mind, but also her actions. While others are thinkers, Brinda is a doer—Padma gave a concrete scene to capture that.
It was Padma’s idea to write that bathroom scene, where she locks in her superior. Also, the electricity board scene came from her. Padma and I would have long chats, where she used to be Satya and I would be Brinda.
For hours, we would talk, have counterarguments, and the character developed there. Since we all came from cinema, we too didn’t know what the grammar for a web series is or should be. For a regular film, we shoot about 1-2 minutes of usable content everyday.
For this show, for the budget allocated, it had to be 5 minutes. So you are automatically forced to change your style while shooting a series. The climactic scene was shot in two days.
We had 2,000 juniors, so much ground to cover, and yet we had to aim for granduer. The cold opens for every episode, which included the flashback scenes, we shot it all over three nights. We were on a time crunch for those sequences, yet we knew we needed the scale as well as visual and practical effects.
It helped that I had complete clarity on the emotions of my characters. Besides being a technical job, a director’s is also a managerial job, requiring people management while delivering what you set out to do. At the end of day, if I know my story and beats, if I am honest at my work, the project will speak for itself.
He is the kind of guy who will choose to audition, even if becomes a Prakash Raj-level of star. We would sit and discuss for long how to approach this character, and I would block and stage the scenes around his performance. Once, he rounded off all the ADs, asked them about their interpretation of Thakur, and eventually figured out a body language for Thakur that captured his loyalty.
Anand will do anything to travel with a character. She has been ruling the screen since 21 years. And yet, the way she respects a director, the value she gave me to me when I spoke; it was mind blowing.
That’s why they are superstars, you realise — because of this quality. To trust a new filmmaker like me, she had to unlearn so many things. She has done bonafide commercial stuff like Varsham and Ghilli with such excellence.
From there, she worked in my show where she had to be so understated and subtle. The nuances, vulnerability and eccentricity she brought, nobody else could have. I am a mainstream cinema buff.
I like my Pushpa and RRR. I feel Telugu cinema has everything, unlike Tamil cinema which has more focus on art-inclined stuff. At the same time, I like honest films.
I like that space where you can place a star in a script that has heart, like Mahesh Babu and Venkatesh in Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu, where you can make grand film with stars that touch upon topics that people should love and connect to. Whats your take on the evolving OTT space? It began as an alternative to the big-budgeted movies, but is becoming increasingly star-driven now..
. At the end of day, you have to bring in audience. We need stars, they are what drives any system.
Of course there is an exception like Scam 1992 where a new face like Pratik Gandhi drove the success. But for other things to work and for those who are investing, the money needs to keep coming in — and it won’t happen without traditional and established process. I have finished three scripts; all of them are for feature films.
One is a forest adventure, which I wrote when I had ample time after Brinda’s post-production work. One of them is almost ready to be greenlit. I will come back to web series when I can make it like a movie, without as many constraints.
I like the long format though . You get a lot to explore, you can deep dive and come out happily. If Brinda was made into a film, it would have become just another thriller, without any discussion on its ideas and themes.
You have worked with eminent filmmakers like Sekhar Kammula, Hanu Raghavpudi, Anish Kuruvilla. Please share your experiences from those days..
Anish Kuruvilla is such a pure-hearted man. If after my parents, if someone who is going to be most proud of me for making this show, it’s Anish. Hanu Raghavpudi, meanwhile, is like a brother.
Anytime I need help, I will call him. And the way Sekhar Kammula lives, that’s where I get inspired from. He lives the path and the messaging that reflects in his film and life.
I don’t know if it’s a romanticised version, but for me Raghu (the good cop in Brinda) is Sekhar gaaru. Unlike Hanu or Anish, Sekhar gaaru never had any special focus on me. I just got inspired by him while working on his sets.
A few days ago, my mother asked me, surprised how I came up with this series idea. I’d say it’s just my understanding of certain people. I want to help like Anish Kuruvillla, I want to be brotherly like Hanu Raghavpudi, and I want to live like Sekhar Kammula.
I took that, and put them in my story. I definitely have more clarity on it. But I will truly know if I walk that path, of doing those things that Brinda is doing.
I am still not as good as Sekhar gaaru, who actually implements those philosophies. I am still juggling between ambition, passion and (takes a long pause) vairagyam (detachment). I am still to reach a point, where I can say, ‘I know this.
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