If my film is a hit, I won’t need big stars: Teja

Director Teja hopes that his upcoming film Hora Hori will give him his much-needed break. “I had some personal problems so I took a break,” says the director.

About the film, he says that most of the film was shot in a village named Agumbe in Karnataka. “I wanted to shoot my film in natural rains and I preferred Cherrapunji. But I came across Agumbe village while surfing the Internet. We shot there for nearly two months,” Teja says.

Teja adds that he worked with a crew of just 23 people for the film. “I wanted to complete the film within a budget and so we took only a limited number of people. We prepared everything well in advance, including a rain machine, in case the rains stopped,” he adds.

When asked why did many people find it hard to work with him, he says, “I am a workaholic and if I get bored with one work, I shift to another. If you ask me about my priorities, it’s cinema, work and then family. But others have to look after their family and other things. So when I force them to work with me, people find it difficult. Though they may have differences with me regarding work, we are friends personally,” says Teja.

When asked whether he would direct a big star, he laughs and says, “If this film becomes a hit, I don’t need big stars. If this film flops then big stars won’t give dates for me.”

He adds that these days films get delayed because of the stars. “If you look at films like Alluri Seetharama Raju, Kurukshetram and Daana Veera Soora Karna, Krishna and NTR completed those films in less than a month. At that time, most of the actors were committed and very professional. Now, technology has improved and it’s a digital world, but still we are sitting on a film for years. There is no commitment in this generation of stars now,” Teja says.

Talking about his next project, Teja says he is working on a science fiction though the star cast is not yet decided.