Bhanumathi Ramakrishna gave me the freedom to explore: Srikanth Nagothi

Techie turned filmmaker Srikanth Nagothi is all set to make his debut soon with Naveen Chandra and Salony Luthra starrer Bhanumathi Ramakrishna.
When debutant filmmakers usually talk about their first film, it’s a theatrical release, especially in Telugu cinema. Direct digital releases are commonplace across the world, with films like To All The Boys I've Loved Before and even the recent film Extraction, not going unnoticed.And just like Surender Kontadi's Amrutharamam, Srikanth’s film will see a direct OTT release too. No, it’s not because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had always planned a web release for Bhanumathi Ramakrishna rather than a theatrical one. I think it’s exciting because I didn’t have to sugar-coat certain details in the film like I would have to do with a theatrical,” the director tells Hyderabad Times, adding, “Besides, the story is best suited for a web platform than a big-screen is what I believe. I’m penning another script which will be more suited for a theatrical release.”

What is Bhanumathi Ramakrishna all about, we ask. “To put it simply, it’s a romantic comedy about two single people in their thirties – Bhanumathi and Ramakrishna. They belong to completely different worlds and the film unlocks their state of mind,” he says, adding, “The story and making it specifically for the web platform gave me the freedom to fiddle around. It gave me wings to express myself. It’s a simple story, nothing complicated but the writing, edit, everything is different when it comes to a web film from a theatrical. And that worked out for me.”

Srikanth reveals that Salony was cast much before Naveen was. “Basically I had my Bhanumati but no Ramakrishna. We were almost nearing shoot and my team began panicking,” he laughs. However things soon fell into place and Naveen Chandra, who was busy with Aravinda Sametha and Evaru, was brought on-board. “I had seen Salony and Naveen in the Tamil film Sarabham, plus I was already supposed to team up with Salony for a project that never took off. While both the actors were game to play the leads, I explained to them that it’s going to be difficult as we would shoot in guerrilla filmmaking style. But thankfully they were both fine with it,” he adds.

Bhanumathi Ramakrishna is a 1-hour-40-minutes long film shot in Hyderabad and Tenali. “It was challenging to shoot, not because of the filmmaking style but because the film is a narrative shown from Bhanumati’s point of view. To narrate the story like a girl was not easy,” says Srikanth, adding that they’re still in talks with OTT platforms to finalise a release. With filmmakers like Tharun Bhascker, Nandini Reddy and more too veering towards digital films, looks like a whole new era is dawning on Tollywood.