Siddham Manohar and Abhinav Reddy Danda, the cinematographer and editor, respectively, of 'Jathi Ratnalu' in this interview talk about their experience of doing the satirical comedy.
Siddham Manohar:
I hail from Nellore. I used to be a student leader, who used to find it hard to convey my point. I chose cinema as a medium because people like visual narration more than speech. I developed a keen interest in technicalities. One Rakesh, who is no more, motivated me.
I started out as an AD. My gurus never treated me as an assistant. They would teach me everything. I got in touch with Nag Ashwin anna and started learning a lot of things while working on 'Yevade Subrahmanyam'. I tried to get into direction.
Nagi anna and Swapna Dutt akka counseled me and told me not to worry about becoming a director, as I am still inexperienced. They motivated me to become an assistant for 'Mahanati'. After that movie, I worked on a small movie. 'Jathi Ratnalu' happened next.
I have known Nagi anna since 'Life Is Beautiful'. He worked more on 'Jathi Ratnalu' than on 'Mahanati'. He didn't sleep for 15 days before its theatrical release. Without him, 'JR' is not there.
The courtroom scenes took time because they involved a lot of artists. The technicians are a young team, while artists like Brahmanandam garu and Murali Sharma garu are seniors. Aswini Dutt garu would be on sets at times to help us out.
Abhinav:
My first film as an AD was 'Yevade Subrahmanyam'. After that movie, I did a few short videos, wedding films, music videos, commercials, etc. I edited 'Gods Of Dharmapuri', the web series. That was my first big OTT project. 'Jathi Ratnalu' followed next.
Filmmaking is my passion. But an aspirant has to gain command over at least one craft. Editing is my forte.
There are a lot of jokes in the movie. And the editing part was tough for this reason. 'Jathi Ratnalu' is not a slapstick comedy. It's more of an oddball comedy where things are chaotic. It's not an easy job to present such a comedy.
There are a lot of healthy comedies like 'Money Money' and 'Kshana Kshanam' that didn't do too well at the box-office. So, we had no clue as to how 'JR' would fare.
Even if there is no strong story in 'JR', there is something beyond a story in the film.
