Satish Kasetty is a Telugu filmmaker. His first film “Hope” won the National Award which was based on student suicides, his second film Kalavaramaye Madilo won the state Nandi award. His recent film “Terror” got released couple of weeks back which is based on Terrorism and Politics.
Many days have passed since your film got released, how was the response?
Positive response from everywhere
Did you expect such positive response?
I knew that film is good, script is good, and screenplay is good. I knew the film will keep the viewers engaged. I knew that audience would feel that they have watched a 2hrs 10min film and did not get bored. Srikanth's previous films didn’t fare well, if this film is at least little good, people will come and watch it, as audience don’t hate Srikanth. But I didn’t expect such unanimous appreciation from everyone.
There is a 6 year gap between this film (Terror) and your previous film (Kalavaramaye Madilo), I think it’s a big gap for a filmmaker, what happened?
Let me tell you this the other way. Muhurtam of "Terror" was held in 2014, later some film union strikes happened; we resumed the shoot and got the censor certificate in September 2015. We had to wait for release dates as we didn't have theaters to release. Totally it took 2 years to get "Terror" released. For the remaining 3 years, after I completed “Kalavaramaye Madilo”, couple of producers approached me but I didn’t have scripts. I started writing my scripts, I was in writing mode, as new ideas kept coming, and I went on writing and decided to complete my scripts.
The movie was scheduled to be released on March 4th but it got advanced to February 26th, any specific reason?
11-12 movies are getting released on that week. So the producer decided to advance its release date.
How did you finalize casting for the film?
Casting was easy. Srikanth was my first choice, lot of people advised me against it as Srikanth didn’t have any recent hits but for me taking a hit hero and giving a wrong casting wouldn’t have worked. Casting of Kota Srinivas Rao and Nassar were based upon their roles. Casting of lesser known people for other characters was tough.
How was it working with senior actors like Kota Srinivas Rao, Nassar and Srikanth?
When a director works with seasoned actors, job gets done easily. They'll give you much more than what you're asking them to give with their performance. They have definitely added value to their roles and to the film.
Srikanth has only praises for you, what qualities in you impressed him?
This is a very difficult film to do in terms of screenplay. I was able to execute the film the way I narrated it. The clarity I had about what I wanted and I was getting it done without any fuss.
Was it hard to sell the idea to the producer as there are no songs in the film?
No, it was never hard. When I narrated the story, he connected with it. They understood that film cannot have songs.
Did anyone ask you put an item song in the film by suggesting something like ...”take CI Vijay (Srikanth) into a pub/bar and there infuse an item song”?
Yes, they asked me but not the way you mentioned it. I tried to fit in a song but eventually we decided not to include a song.
"X days to the terror attack" appears for each of 13 days, how did you conceive it?
In the film I have told everything for the audience but not for the characters like Alfred Hitchcock style.
There are 3 ways to tell a story
1. Actors know but the event but audience don’t.
2. Nobody knows about the event except one actor.
3. Audience knows but none of the actors know about the event.
Its curiosity and concern which drives the film, which is how it happened.
The film doesn’t have any songs and for a thriller like this it is impossible to experience the essence of it before Re-Recording, how did you pick up Sai Karthik as the music director for the film?
My initial choice was Sanjoy Chowdhury who worked for Neeraj Pandey's "A Wednesday". It was Srikanth's idea to bring in Sai Karthik. Sai Karthik had a wish to work with me after he saw my earlier films and liked my taste in Re Recording. He said that he had an ambition to work with RGV, Krishna Vamshi and the other person is me. The film needed a commercial touch; I was carrying a baggage of untouchable. Award winner is an untouchable, I was carrying that tag and I had to get rid of that.
The MLA character in the film is an important one, how did you end up casting Prudhviraj for that role?
When I first wrote my scenes I had the character of Sadashiv Amrapurkar from "Arjun" in my mind. When we were writing the dialogues, Lakshmi Bhupal (dialogue writer) was laughing and writing the dialogues. I asked "What happened?” he said that these scenes and dialogues would be apt to Prudhviraj and that’s how we decided to cast Prudhviraj for the MLA character.
We come across Glycerine, Booby Trap etc... It seems like you have done research on how bombs are made and other things related to it.
Yes, I have a friend who was a Major in the Army. I was with him for 2 days to understand bombs and other mechanisms related to making of bombs, planting of bombs etc…These things made the film a bit more engrossing.
There were many scenes which were shot in real locations which added a shade of anxiety into the narration. How was it done?
Those scenes were shot in real locations of Hyderabad. We had 2-3 cameras to shoot those scenes and in some instances we had hidden cameras, even the actors didn’t know where the cameras were kept.
The cinematography of the film is good, and you being a professional photographer how was it done?
"Terror" is not a commercial glamorous film, I needed natural lighting, and natural lighting in the sense, there should be a source, source should be one. In simple terms, I use to ask the cinematographer to do the set lighting. In my childhood days I grew up watching western movies, which had tight frames and I wanted that in the film.
There was substantial drama in the film and there was a chance for you to amplify it to melodrama but you didn’t allow it, Was it consciously done?
Yes, it was conscious. I just wanted to show the problems and emotional attachments in the relationships and not beyond it.
The film has patriotism, politics, terrorism etc, I don’t see rhetoric as a negative quality. Expect for one scene there was no rhetoric which we often see in many such films. Was it deliberate?
Yes. To me, the film is about the autonomy to the police force, so that is why we had to add those dialogues for that scene because without them there wouldn’t be any justification to the philosophy of the film.
Were you surprised with *beeps* infused by Censor Board?
No, they said the film will get A certificate without any beeps. But with A certificate it is hard to get satellite rights. A films cannot get prime time on TV. There was a senseless controversy about James Bond film "Spectre", they got a U/A certificate.
I couldn’t fathom at that time why Sony was asking for U/A certificate for a James Bond film?
The film can get prime time viewership with U/A and they have found the potential in the Indian market. So, the Censor Board was on the right side with the controversy over "Spectre"? Censor Board was 100% right as they had asked for U/A.
This film would perfectly fit the description of a "Multiplex film" but surprisingly it wasn’t released in any of the Multiplexes. Were you surprised?
Yes, I am surprised. We didn’t get theatres. Now, due to the positive talk, the film will be screened in some multiplexes.
The film starts with this quote "It is due to the uncompromising courage of certain few, the failing system continues to survive” do you share the same opinion?
Yes, it is a fact and if I did not believe in it I wouldn’t be doing this film.
There wasn’t any exclusive social media promotion for the film but the Social Media helped you in a different way. How did Social Media contribute?
Before the film got released I said that I would tag people on Facebook and Twitter to promote it and requested them to bear with me and said they can Unfriend/Unfollow me if they don’t like it. It worked and after the initial positive talk and good reviews for the film, people on Social Media have promoted the film.
Do you have a favorite scene in the film?
"The Dependable" scene.
You said that after the film "Basha" many Telugu filmmakers have followed a formula, do you think that it still exists?
I call it "Basha Syndrome", it still exists. People have a pre-conceived idea that this is how a Telugu film should be, but slowly people are coming out of it with small efforts by some people by making small budget and different films.
Dr. Ramanaidu once praised you for coming prepared with shot by shot description of every scene that is how you prepare for all your films?
I went with a storyboard of every scene for "Hope", but not for "Kalavaramaye Madilo" and "Terror". "Terror" was shot with 2 and 3 cameras, so it was not possible to go with storyboard.
There was an issue about Nandi awards. I think the awards weren’t given for the last 2 years, what exactly was the controversy about?
There is no clarity on who should be giving the awards after the bifurcation of state. (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).
There was lot of talk and concerns were raised about Telugu Film Industry in the context of State bifurcation. Any change in the industry after the state got divided?
Not that I have noticed.
Do you advice people to join a film school if they have plans to make movies?
Basically one needs to learn, where that learning happens is immaterial. I didn’t go to any film school. I didn’t work with anybody.
Any advice to aspiring filmmakers and writers.
I am not a big guy to give advice. If one has talent, go and learn the skill.
Sometimes we hear complaints against the Social Media especially from film industry. Criticism in Social Media can be very rude, acerbic and sometimes it’s nasty.
I am fortunate that nothing of such thing happened and I am lucky that nothing less than a miracle happened for "Terror" on Social Media.
You once said that K. Vishwanath, Mani Ratnam and Shekhar Kapur are your favorite filmmakers, any other filmmakers who have impressed you?
Vishal Bharadwaj and Prakash Jha.
Lastly. APJ Abdul Kalam gets an obituary in the start and end of the film. Whose idea was it? Producer Mastan Shaikk is a patriot. It was his idea to put it.
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