Hyderabad
29 June, 2011

Neelakanta who has won the coveted national award for screenplay of his ‘Show’ gave a commercial hit Missamma as a follow-up movie. It’s been 4 years since his last film Mr. Medhavi was released. Neelakanta is coming back with vengeance by directing a socio-political thriller Virodhi. Here are the excerpts of an exclusive interview -

Why is there a huge gap between your last movie and Virodhi?
I had been working on several scripts. I have worked for the script of TV serial Vivekananda for the past two years.

What is Virodhi is all about?
Virodhi is about ‘the state of mind at that particular point of time’. Virodhi has human drama unfolding in it. It is about leadership quality. I have not touched on the core issues and the ideology of extremists.

How is the performance of Srikanth?
Srikanth played the role of a journalist called Jayadev. He gave subtle emotions for a character that needs emotions from within. It is a subtlety-layered character and Srikanth gave a controlled performance with little dialogues.

Tell us about the other characters?
Kamalinee did the role of an intelligent woman. Ajay gave a terrific performance. The characters of Kamal Kamaraju and Sivaji Raja have different style and pattern to them. Ravi Varma plays a vital character. Music director Kiran Varanasi did a vital role. Vijay (Son of actor Sivaji Raja) is also making his debut. Gopi Krish, Altaf, Sri Ramya (1940 lo heroine) and Rupali played other significant roles.

Tell us about the screenplay?
The screenplay of this film will be in linear format. The film starts from the point of view of a character and then it opens up.

Tell us about the technical departments?

RP Patnaik: I always liked the folk-style of RP Patnaik and I felt that he is the one who can do justice to Virodhi’s music. He came up with good numbers. He has provided wonderful background music.

HM Ramachandra: He has worked as a cinematographer and won national award for Kannada film Dweepa which was produced by late actress Soundarya. We have shot the film in stunning and wild locations of Gangavati.

Editor Shankar has done fabulous work with the editing. Rama Devi is has done styling and costumes. This film is a result of team work from all departments.

When did you get the story idea for Virodhi?
The idea is with me for a long time. I added imagination to the paper cuttings and news reels I had seen over a period of time on a burning issue. The story of this film is narrated in a thriller pattern and socio-political issues pop up in between. Though its a thriller, I have not missed on the human drama aspect.

What’s the runtime of the movie?
The runtime of the movie is around 2 hours and ten minutes. We have shot the movie in 45 working days in a moderate budget.

What is your gut feel on the movie?
I am very happy and pleased with the final output. Producer Anil Meka is a very good producer to work with. I had got great support and complete freedom from him. We have narrated the movie in new format and with a new backdrop. Virodhi will be an emotional journey for the audiences.

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