The film’s pre-look motion poster, which had a tagline saying ‘Corona was just the beginning’, created a curiosity among the viewers. Post the success of Awe, Prasanth made the action drama, Kalki with Rajasekhar, which received fairly positive reviews.Ī few weeks back, the super talented director announced his third directorial project and it had some interesting connections to the pandemic and Coronavirus. Notably, the film won the National Award for Best Special Effects and Best Make Up. Prasanth Varma was also applauded for the intriguing screenplay. The film was raved by the critics and the audience for its innovative premise and discussing complex themes. I think we have a blockbuster on hand.Director Prasanth Varma is known for making an impressive debut with Awe that starred Kajal Aggarwal, Nithya Menen, Regina Cassandra, Eesha Rebba, Murali Sharma, Priyadarshi, in the lead roles. He gauged the reactions during test screenings and says, “It’s a two-hour-two-minute film that will keep viewers entertained. Looking back, Prasanth says he is “super confident” that the audience will love the film. Nagendra Tangala who did the art direction for Kalki and Mark Robin from Awe collaborated again with Prasanth for the zom-com. With all the makeup, blood and dust, their visibility was diminished and sometimes they would trip and fall while running,” says Prasanth. International makeup artists were expensive to hire so Prasanth and the makeup artists looked at YouTube tutorials and did more than 10 trials. We share similar interests and he would easily enact what I wanted.”ĭressing up the zombie characters required preparation. He got recognition with Oh! Baby and I made my name with Awe and Kalki.
Teja and I had wanted to work together for a few years, but both of us were struggling. We wanted someone who would grasp the dialogues on the spot since we were improvising on set. Long time friend Teja Sajja was chosen to play the male lead and Prasanth chose Daksha after an audition, and Anandhi after watching her Tamil films. Both Awe and his second film Kalki had detailed scripts before he went to shoot. But this method worked best for this film because we were able to incorporate incidents inspired by COVID-19.” Prasanth’s debut film Awe won the National Awards for makeup and special effects, and was critically acclaimed for bending the norms of storytelling in an otherwise formulaic Telugu cinema. Sensing the surprise at this disclosure, coming from a director whose debut film won two National Awards, he adds, “This isn’t something I am proud of. He and his team from Scriptsville (the script bank which he mooted) improvised dialogues on set. Prasanth had the basic structure of the story and detailed characters. The Zombie Reddy unit had shot for 12 days before lockdown and were among the first to begin filming soon after restrictions were lifted. “Things fell into place for the film,” says Prasanth. Later, of course, masks became the norm for everyone. In the initial days of shoot prior to lockdown, it was tough to find masks for the characters that had to sport them on screen. I deputed one person from production and direction departments to supervise sanitisation and to ensure everyone had their masks on,” reveals Prasanth, who points out at the irony. We filmed scenes that required minimum people on set and gradually built it up. The unit would work for a week, followed by a fortnight-long quarantine. The production team resumed filming with caution, after lockdown.