Chandu Mondeti’s recently released debut directorial venture Karthikeya, a socio-fantasy thriller, was a super hit. From being an engineer to directing a superhit film, Chandu's life has sure seen a major shift.
Born in Kovvur in Godavari district and raised in Chennai, Chandu studied engineering. “But films have been on my mind even when I was in college, but I wanted to complete my education first,” says Chandu. His father works in a private company in Chennai, so Chandu stayed there mostly, but he has always been in touch with his native place.
“I stay 70 km near Chennai and hardly watched Telugu films in theatres. Telugu films release only in Chennai. So whenever I visited Vizag, I would watch Telugu films and would observe the way the audience responded. It was sometime then that I decided to direct,” he says.
On a visit to Vizag, he visited a popular temple called Talupalamma Thalli, near Tuni. “Many people visited the temple and interestingly the temple closes at 7 pm and nobody dares to go near the temple after that. I heard about an incident that apparently happened there. A family visited the temple and when they come out a child got left back in the temple.
The temple closed and the family didn't go back to bring the child out as the temple authorities did not allow it. They went inside the next morning and got the child out and he was fine. However, I was told, one person from the family had tried to enter the temple at night without anyone’s knowledge and he went missing! That incident inspired me to write Karthikeya,”says Chandu.
After writing the story, he met Srinivasa Rao who took him to Nikhil. “Nikhil was impressed and immediately agreed to do the film,” says Chandu who planned to shoot the film in Araku but rain played spoilsport.
He then moved on to a temple near Wadayerapalem, 50 km near to Kumbhakonam. “We found an old Siva temple and some parts of the film were shot in Vizianagaram. We struggled during the shoot, but the film’s success elated us,” he says.
Chandu is a big fan of Nagarjuna. “I have prepared a story for Nagarjunagaru. After this film’s release I got a call from Annapurna Studios. I am expecting to meet him and narrate my story,” he says.
Chandu also got congratulatory calls from Allu Arjun, PVP, Vinayak and Dil Raju. “Many people from the industry congratulated me. I am very happy with the film's success,” he says.
Rising through the ranks and how
Trikoti made his debut with the hugely successful Dikkulu Choodaku Ramayya released few weeks ago. Trikoti is a known face in the industry as he has worked closely with S.S. Rajamouli.
Asked about his entry into the film industry, he says that he started his career as an office boy and then joined the editing department. “Then I became an assistant director and then joined as associate director to Kranthi Kumar,” says Trikoti, who hails from Gangapatnam, Nellore.
S.S. Rajamouli too joined Kranthi Kumar as assistant director at the same time. “We met each other then, went on to become friends and have worked together on many films for more than ten years,” says Trikoti.
About his directorial debut, Trikoti says that the story was initially written by his friend Giri, who has worked with E.V.V. Satyanarayana. “We later worked on it together to develop it into a full story for a film,” says Trikoti.
He knows producer Sai Korrapati from the time they worked on Eega. “Once I completed my script I narrated the story in which a father and son fall in love with same girl, in a funny way. He liked it and immediately gave a green signal,” says Trikoti.
Though Trikoti has worked with Rajamouli, his style is different. “I keenly observe Rajamouli to see how he handles action films and sentiment films. I have learnt a lot from him,” he says.
Acknowledging music director Keeravani's contribution, Trikoti says, “I gave the complete script with dialogues to Keeravani and also explained the characters to him. He has given wonderful music for this film and it is a big asset.”
Trikoti has a few stories in hand but has not yet decided what’s next. He may direct Naga Chaitanya in his next film.
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Trikoti’s debut film made on a budget of Rs 5 crore, has already collected nearly Rs 7 crore
