Ravikanth Perepu scored a super success with his 2016-directorial-debut, Kshanam. But instead of basking in its glory and getting on a signing spree, the filmmaker took his time to make his next film, Krishna and his Leela. The film, which is produced by Rana Daggubati, has completed its shooting.
“I had this script since my days as an assistant director (AD). When I met Rana and discussed a couple of story ideas, I thought both of us were on the same page regarding creative thought processes. It was then that I bounced off to him this story idea, and he liked it,” recalls Ravikanth.
Krishna and his Leela is a fictional narrative about the personal journey of a spirited youngster from Vizag, which Ravikanth classifies as romance-drama genre. “It’s a script I believe everyone will connect with, in that, they may have experienced similar incidents at some point in their lives as in the story. In that sense, the film might be a nostalgic ride for them,” says Ravikanth.
The filmmaker then goes on to add how glad he feels that he made the film exactly like he’d envisioned.
“Credit has to go Rana for insisting that we stick to the original story idea, which has more emotions and drama. Whenever I deviated from the script, he corrected and guided us. He gave me a great platform to make a film exactly how I wanted to, and that’s the biggest gratification a filmmaker can get,” Ravikanth adds.
Starring Sidhu Jonnalagadda, Shraddha Srinath, Seerat Kapoor and Shalini Vadnikatti, the film’s already had its share of delays during its making. For one, Rana’s father Suresh Babu, who’s known for fine-tuning the script, came up with several revisions, naturally delaying the filming.
Admitting that he had to endure several difficulties during the filmmaking, an optimistic Ravikanth, however, laughs it off, saying he got used to working under tough conditions. But he adds, saying, “Most of Suresh Babu’s questions were logical and correct, so the delay only did a world of good to us as we were able bring out a quality product in the end. Working with him was a learning experience, and it’s helped me expand my creative horizons.”
