-
'Dollar Dreams'--He spent around 20 lakhs
to make his first film 'Dollar Dreams.--- commercially
Dollar Dreams'
successful at the box-office, was a critical success.
- National Film Award
- Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director - Golden Lotus Award
-
'Anand' : 2004: After a gap of
3 years, he is back with a bang to make a complete Telugu entertainer
'Anand' : 2004:
'Anand' with 50% funding from National Film Development Counsel. It was huge hit in the year 2004.
- A prominent person in the Telugu film industry, Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao declared Sekhar as "Hero of 2004"
- Nandi Awards
- Anand film
- Second Best Feature Film
- Best Director – Sekhar Kammula
- Godavari: 2007--was a moderate success BUT praised by critics
- Nandi Awards
- Godavari-film
- Second Best Feature Film
- Best Director – Sekhar Kammula
- Happy Days: 2007--was declared a smash hit
- Nandi Awards
- Happy Days film
- Second Best Feature Film
- Filmfare Awards South
- Happy Days- film
- Best Film – Sekhar Kammula and Chandra S Kammula
- Best Director – Sekhar Kammula
- Dasari Best Film Director Award - Happy Day film
- LEADER- 2010: a political drama and film is a critically acclaimed success huge collections, Got a new league of fame.
- Life is beautiful: 2011-Writer, Director, Producer
Sekhar avoids violence and vulgarity in his films. He has passionate to attract such as family viewing possible- college, school and female audiences
Sekhar Kammula said:
I am a hardcore movie buff watching all Chiranjeevi movies
on the first show of the first day. But what made feel that I am capable
of making films is that I could able to see things differently compared
to others. I think I have a philosophical angle to my nature and the
way I observe the things.
I spent so much time watching things and I am capable of seeing and
analyzing things differently. Hence, I decided that I should enter the
field of moviemaking at one point of time. I wanted to join a film institute
in USA. But I did not have money. I decided that I would earn money
and then join a film institute to hone my skills.
I do love the country USA absolutely. There is lot of scope to broaden
yourself. I am not speaking about the power of dollar. One can make
money anywhere and anytime. They have tremendous attitude. Whatever
they like to do they would do it. They have completely different mindset.
I always wanted to return to India because I am attached to parents
and I love Hyderabad. So I set my priorities right. Do job. Earn money.
Go to film school. And return to India.
I had a very simple life in USA so that I could save money. When I
started saving money, I applied for a film school at Howard University.
I wrote in the statement of purpose while applying for film school that
I tend to think about the things which people tend to ignore when they
try accomplishing the materialistic needs. And I love small things in
life and enjoy watching the tender feelings exhibited by kids and thoroughly
love the things showered by nature upon us. That's what seems to have
impressed the Chairman of the film school. He called upon me immediately
and offered me admission into institute. I wanted some financial assistance.
But they made it clear that its not possible in any film training school.
I was one of the best students in the class. When we made small films,
there was no ego or hierarchy. We used to work collectively. I used
to be the light man sometimes, cinematographer or editor while learning
the direction of the film.
I did thesis in my final semester and I did my thesis on screenplay.
I have chosen the subject of Anand as the basic story of my thesis screenplay.
Finally I got my MFA (Master in Fine Arts) degree. Its not a 6months
course. It's a 3 years (60 credit course) master degree. I had two degrees
in USA. One is MS in Computer Science and other one is MFA. After 5
years of stay in USA, I returned to India.
That was in 1999. There was a tremendous boom in software field. As
everybody was going to USA to earn dollars, I returned to India to do
a job in Citicorp. I slowly started meeting people related to film industry.
There was so much of exodus from Hyderabad to USA in 1999. My sister
is a gynecologist. She told me a strange incident that happened in her
hospital. A lady was requesting my sister to do a 4th month abortion
to her because she would be going to USA a year later and she want her
kid to be citizen of USA by giving birth to him/her in USA. I felt that
it was heights of insanity. That incident really inspired me. And that's
what they taught me in school. Chose the subject of your film from an
inspiring incident. I did not think about budget. I did not think about
marketing my film. I did not think about the total outcome.
At that point of time 'Hyderabad Blues' was released. That genre inspired
me. I pooled up money from my savings and borrowing from my friends.
We started a banner called 'Amigos Creations' (Amigos means friends
in Spanish). We cast people who are new to film industry for the freshness.
The characters in 'Dollar Dreams' speak in 3 languages (Hindi, English
and Telugu). I registered the film as English film. At that time I was
not aware that I would have got subsidy for the film if it were registered
as Telugu language. By the time I completed 1st copy I spent around
Rs. 16 lakhs. When I started marketing the film, the distributors were
putting questions like 'who is the hero? Who is music director? Which
language film is this? I was totally zapped, because I did not have
any satisfactory answers for the questions posed by distributors. Still,
I has tremendous confidence and guts to continue my mission.
Then I approached the management of Sangeet theater in Secunderabad
and told him that my film is a film that people would love to watch
in Sangeet theater. I asked him to have a preview show and buy it if
he likes the film. But he is pucca commercial man. He said that he would
rent theater at flat rate of Rs. 10,000/- per show and he was not interested
in buying the film. I had to finally agree for it and I booked Sangeet
theater for one show a day for 28 days. We used to go to all corporate
houses and fore sell the tickets of the film. It ran for 4 weeks nonstop.
Then 20th Century Fox people saw the film and agreed to release it nationwide.
He asked me to dub the Telugu dialogues in English. Then we started
spending money on other things. We got lots of visibility at national
level. But the icing on the cake was National Award (Swarna Kamal) for
the best debutant director. Since then things started rolling for me.
I sold the satellite rights of the film. I have lots of rights unsold
for Dollar Dreams. I am confident that one day I would be breaking even
on that project. I lost around 4-5 lakhs on Dollar Dreams. But I am
very much satisfied for all the things that happened because of Dollar
Dreams.
After Dollar Dreams, I started meeting producers to tell stories. All
of them wanted a storyline. When I told them storyline, they used to
feel that its too simple. Then I used to give them bounded script of
Anand. They used to read a few scenes and tell that its OK. But nobody
came forward. Actually a script cannot be read in pieces. Just like
you watch a film continuously in a theater for 2 and half hours, one
had to read the script continuously from 1st page to last page at a
stretch to understand the content and the underlying feelings completely.
I met somebody at one of the film festivals and he suggested the name
of NFDC (National Film Development Counsel). I applied for NFDC. Earlier
they used to give 100% funding. But most of the makers used to take
50-60 lakhs as funding and spend only 10 lakhs to produce inflated bills.
Hence, they wanted to see some accountability from director as well.
Hence they came forward to fund 50% of the project. I also liked that
idea and I believe 'Anand' would start a new trend in Telugu film industry
in terms of funding.
I felt that artist Raja has sharp looks and good smile. He is also
a method actor. He does not have any melodrama in his acting. When I
personally met him, I came to know that he had formal training in Florida
as an actor. I am also impressed by the passion he has for cinema. He
trusts my abilities as a director. Its nice to work with an actor who
trusts you than the actor who is more interested in number of songs
and locations of the songs.
We cast all non-established actors as character artists in Anand. We
have been in this process for the past 3 months. Casting the heroines
is a big problem. We went to Mumbai and Bangalore and could not get
the appropriate one. Then I came to know about a Bengali girl Kamalinee.
Did a screen-test to her and she is perfect.
I visited RFC and Nanakram Guda and could not find the right place.
I need a big house and an outhouse situated adjacently. I stay in Padmarao
Nagar. Hence, I have more proximity by having the set here. Kamalinee
is also put up in a house at Padmarao Nagar now. Raja would shifting
his residence to Padmarao Nagar for the shoot of this film soon. We
all are working on simple things with commitment for an effective result.
I am not a typical filmy person. I am not used to studios in Jubilee
Hills and Banjara Hills. I want to get the things done in a simple way.
40% of the film's shooting would be done in this set. We have a very
homely atmosphere in that set. I want to get out tender feelings from
actors and transfer it on to the screen.
The word Anand means joy. If I were to put a caption to this film I
would have kept 'the way of life'. Because every film that is churned
out today are having captions, I did not have any caption for Anand.
Actually I wanted to keep a couple of montage songs in the film to
advance the story. When I sat with Veturi I realized that I could see
1000's of expressions expressed as 2 words in lyrics. Hence we fixed
upon having six songs in 'Anand'. All songs are written by Veturi. Veturi
is known for efficiency in writing spontaneous lyrics. But he took 30
days to write lyrics for Anand.
I went back to old songs. Its not that we copied any old songs. But
we implanted the flavor we find in golden oldies in this film. They
also elevate lyrical value. I am writing dialogues myself because I
want the dialogues to be natural.
I am great fan of Chiranjeevi since my childhood. Bapu is my favorite
film director. I like Tabu a lot. She has great histrionic abilities
and sensuality. When I searched for a heroine for Anand, I told the
people that I was looking for a junior Tabu.
When we held that Anand's pressmeet, director Krishnavamsi called me
and wished all the best and told a few good words. It was a wonderful
moment for me.
No. I am feeling secured, because I have my job of software profession
in tact. I took vacation from my company and working over this project.
I prefer staying the way I am now. I don't want to churn out continuous
films just because my film has become hit. I would prefect to encourage
people who worked in my direction departments. I would produce films
by making them directors.
I guess every Telugu software engineer knows about idlebrain. All of
us surf idlebrain in every first hour of our day in office. I find the
name idlebrain very catchy. Idlebrain is very up-to-date and current.
But I don't know how you make money. I heard that big software firms
in India like Wipro, Satyam and CTS firewalled idlebrain.com, which
is a pretty good compliment.
